A time for action
Montana State volleyball coach Miya Malauulu would like to think her Bobcats sent a rather strong message to the rest of the teams in the Big Sky Conference when they swept past regular-season champion Eastern Washington 30-25, 30-20, 30-19 in Bozeman last Saturday.
“I think it works to our advantage,” Malauulu said of the lopsided victory that snapped the Eagles’ 10-match winning streak and established the Bobcats as a legitimate player in the Big Sky Tournament that kicks off tonight at EWU’s Reese Court.
“Obviously, it gives us great momentum going into the tournament. It gives us more confidence and a better mindset, which as far as our girls are concerned, is right where it needs to be. I know if I was on the other side, I wouldn’t want to be playing us right now.”
The Bobcats (18-7 overall, 10-4 in the Big Sky) come into this year’s tournament as the No. 3 seed and will take on No. 6 Northern Arizona (7-18, 4-10) at 5 tonight in the first of two quarterfinal matchups. No. 4 Idaho State (12-16, 8-6) plays No. 5 Portland State (13-14, 5-9) in the 7 p.m. nightcap, with the highest-seeded survivor facing No. 2 Sacramento State (23-7, 11-3) and the lowest-seeded survivor meeting No. 1 Eastern (19-7, 12-2) in Friday night’s semifinals.
The championship match will be played Saturday night at 6:05.
“Our girls are all playing close to their potential right now, which is what you always want – to be playing well in November,” added Malauulu, whose Bobcats, like EWU and Sac State, were a perfect 7-0 at home against Big Sky opponents this fall. “But Eastern Washington definitely has the advantage, because they’re very tough at home and Coach (Wade) Benson does a great job of coaching them up and getting them to play to a very high level.”
Benson said he is not reading too much into the way his Eagles folded at Montana State, noting his team was just 24 hours removed from having clinched a third consecutive regular-season Big Sky title with an emotional 3-2 road win over Montana.
“It’s hard to beat a team three times,” said Benson, whose Eagles handled MSU rather easily at home in mid-October. “And we didn’t have a whole lot to play for. I just think Montana State did a good job against us, and good for them.
“But now it’s a whole new ball of wax. We’re back on our home court, and we’ve got a lot of focus going into this thing.”
Eastern beat both MSU and Sac State by 3-1 margins at home during the regular season, and swept Idaho State 3-0 at home and on the road.
This is the third consecutive year the Eagles have hosted the Big Sky tournament, but they lost to Sacramento State in the championship match each of the past two years.
“It can be a little bit tricky,” Benson said. “In the Big Sky, during the regular season, it’s been shown that the home court is a definite advantage. But in a tournament situation, where someone might play three or four times on somebody else’s court, it’s a little different.”