Box score, play-by-play


BILLINGS, Mont. -- Whatever the game, it comes down to defense. And that's what ultimately brought down Seattle Pacific on the volleyball court Thursday night.

Paige Hoffman had 11 kills and Jessica Bettencourt hammered 10, but the Falcons dropped a four-game Great Northwest Athletic Conference match to Montana State Billings. Scores in Alterowitz Gymnasium were 25-17, 25-22, 18-25, 25-16.

SPU, trying to stay in the conference title race, fell to 8-3 in GNAC play, 14-9 overall. That left the Falcons 1½ games behind first-place Alaska Anchorage (10-2). The Seawolves scored a four-game victory at Western Oregon on Thursday night.

“They just beat us, plain and simple. They played better defense than we did,” Falcons coach Chris Johnson said. “We didn't play defense very well at all in that first game (when the Yellowjackets hit a stratospheric .538). And 12 serving errors (for the match) hurt us.”

Sophomore outside hitter Hoffman (Encinitas, Calif.) hit .476 for the match, and senior middle blocker Bettencourt (South Lake Tahoe, Calif.) hit .261. The Falcons hit just .178 as a team.

Montana State Billings (14-10, 7-5 GNAC) completed a season sweep of the Falcons, having won a five-gamer in Seattle on Oct. 3.

Seattle Pacific will try to get back on track Saturday night at 7 in Bellingham against Western Washington. The Falcons swept the Vikings in Brougham Pavilion on Sept. 30 by scores of 25-20, 25-22,25-13.

While the Yellowjackets opened Thursday's match with their .538 hitting, SPU also was solid in Game 1 at .333. Billings yielded the first point of the match to the Falcons, but then ran off five straight and never trailed after that.

“We couldn't dig a ball out to save our lives in that first game,” Johnson said.

The Jackets also had kept the lead through the second half of Game 2 after snapping a 9-9 tie with three straight points. Seattle Pacific fell behind, 22-17, ran off five straight to get back into a 22-22 tie, but Billings scored the last three points of the game.

SPU led from start to finish in Game 3 after racing to a 4-0 lead. The Falcons eventually built their advantage to 11-4, and never let Billings get closer than four.

The Yellowjackets went ahead for good in Game 4 with three straight points to snap a 4-4 tie.

“We did a much better job in Game 2, but we had too many errors,” Johnson said. “We finally played well in the third game. Our defense was way better, and we held them to .000 hitting. Then we missed our first three serves of Game 4, and that hurt us.”

Freshman setter Shelby Swanson (Kennewick, Wash./Kamiakin HS) led the Falcons with 27 assists, and senior Cortney Weedman (Scottsdale, Ariz.) had 22. Junior middle blocker Kylie Johnson (Tucson, Ariz.) came up with eight blocks.

Devon Crotteau, the GNAC leader in kills (she entered the match with 395), topped Montana State Billings with 18. The Yellowjackets hit .203 for the match, just the second time in the last 16 outings an opponent has hit better than .200 against SPU.

“We did a good job against their outside hitters,” Johnson said. “We did a good job of executing the game plan and attacking from the right side and attacking from the middle. Paige and Jess did a good job.

“They (the Yellowjackets) just seemed to win a lot of weird points.”

NCAA Volleyball
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Alterowitz Gymnasium/Billings, Mont. 

Montana State Billings 3, Seattle Pacific 1

Game scores -- 25-17, 25-22, 18-25, 25-16.
Service aces -- SPU: Three players with 1. MSUB: Devon Crotteau 3.
Kills -- SPU: Pagie Hoffman 11, Jessica Bettencourt 10. MSUB: Crotteau 18, Jen Boe 10.
Blocks -- SPU: Kylie Johnson 8, Bettencourt 6. MSUB: Jody Lutz 6, Hannah Johnson 5.
Assists -- SPU: Shelby Swanson 27, Cortney Weedman 22. MSUB: Hillary Morrison 44.
Digs -- SPU: Anna Herold 18, Sarah Risser 11. MSUB: Jill Trbing 17, Boe 14.
Hitting -- SPU .178 (54 kills, 24 errors, 152 total attacks). MSUB .203 (50 kills, 22 errors, 138 total attacks).
Attendance -- 122.

Records
Seattle Pacific 14-9, 8-3 GNAC.
Montana State Billings 14-10, 7-5 GNAC.

Next match -- Seattle Pacific at Western Washington, Saturday, 7 p.m.