GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The University of Providence volleyball team played its best match of the season to upset (21) Rocky Mountain College in a tense and exciting 3-2 (22-25, 25-18, 17-25, 25-23, 16-14) win at home. A number of personal bests were set for the Lady Argos in the match with two juniors taking on bigger roles than ever before.
 
"We've had a lot of parents here this weekend and these kids just really wanted to perform. They dug deep and I think they just decided that the gloves were off and it was time to battle," Head Coach Arunas Duda said. "I thought they just did a great job of fighting through things tonight and really everyone stepped up."
 
With senior right side hitter Mariah Diaz back in the lineup for the past few matches following an injury that kept her out at the beginning of Frontier Conference play, the Lady Argos have started to dial in its offensive strategy. For the second straight match, junior setter Paige Jensen go the starting nod, after starting the year third on the team's depth chart.
 
Led by Jensen and redshirt-junior outside hitter Korie Milan, the Lady Argos led for much of the first set against the ranked Rocky Mountain squad. A 4-0 rally had UP against 17-14 but the Battlin' Bears showed why they entered the match as the top team in the conference, fighting back to take a 23-20 lead.
 
Despite dropping that first set, the close nature of play seemed to instill confidence in the Lady  Argos,  and reestablished in the team an attitude that they had in non-conference play – that when at their best, they can play with any team in the country.
 
UP's offense proved that to be true in the second set. Let by Milan, who for the first time all season consistently channeled her deadly hitting power with accuracy and vision. After tallying 5 of UP's 16 kills in the first set, she had another 5 in the second as the Lady Argos hit .256 as a team.
 
The first half of the set was close, but with a 14-12 lead, UP won 9 of the next 12 points in route to a dominant 25-18 win.
 
As good as that second set was, the third set was equally bad. The Lady Argo's hitting percentage dropped to .065 despite 5 kills from Diaz. The 25-17 loss could have deflated the Lady Argo's, but instead, they got into a dogfight in the fourth set in an attempt to force the tiebreaker set.
 
UP's struggles in the third prompted an unprecedented lineup change. Coach Duda decided to change the team's designated libero from sophomore Brooke Foth, who has been the team's libero for the last nine matches, to junior Tymerie Vincelli who had never played libero in her life and was an outside hitter as a freshman.
 
Vincelli's superb defensive play through the first three sets, along with her ability to contribute offensively when called up, dictated the change and she shone in the new role.
 
"I can't say enough about Tymerie. She stepped in and absolutely outperformed anything she's done in the past," Duda said. "The talk for us all week was 'how do we get Tymerie on the court' because her voice and the way she communicates has been phenomenal. Credit to her for sticking through some good times and some rough times and sticking with it."
 
With Vincelli wearing the off-color jersey, UP looked poised to win the set with a 21-18 lead that was set up by 2 big kills from Milan. Rocky wasn't giving up the set so easily and rallied off the next 4 points to take a 22-21 lead. The Lady Argos turned to Milan and Andersen with the match on the line and they got the job done. Each of them had 2 kills in the final 5 points of the set to give UP a 25-23 win.
 
Neither team could earn a significant lead in the fifth set but the Battlin' Bears were first to get to match point with a controversial attacking error on UP's Kailey Rashford. Both the crowd and the Lady Argos argued for a tip on Rashford's attack, but the officials disagreed and gave Rocky a 14-13 lead.
 
UP stayed alive thanks to a serving error which brought Vincelli back to serve for the Lady Argos. With the score tied at 14 all, redshirt-freshman Lauren Brown got her 9th kill of the match to give her team match point. Diaz and Rashford then finished off the upset bid with a block.
 
While a handful for Lady Argos set new career highs in the match, Jensen and Vincelli were the two that far exceeded any previous numbers. In her first action as a libero, Vincelli with 23 digs, one of the highest digs totals for any Lady Argo on the year. She also had 1 kill and 1 ace.
 
Jensen also had by far the best match of her career, getting her first double-double with a  career high  of 32 assists, and a  career high  of 15 digs.
 
Offensively, Milan led all hitters with 19 kills and a hitting percentage of .283 along with 5 digs, and 2 block assists. Andersen was next in kills with 16 followed by Diaz with 12.
 
Andersen was also a key contributor to UP's solid net defense, setting a career high with 6 block assists. She didn't lead the team in that category, however. That went to senior Josee Pendleton who had 1 solo block and 8 block assists.
 
The win is UP's first over a ranked opponent in 2017 and gives the team a record of 17-8 (4-4). The Lady Argos now have sole possession of fourth place in the conference standings and are 0-3 in conference play without Diaz in the lineup and 4-1 with her healthy.
 
Next for UP will be a road match against Montana State University-Northern on October 26 at 7 p.m.