GREAT FALLS, Mont. – A senior class that has gone missing at times in 2017 for Lady Argo volleyball stepped up huge in the team's 3-1 (20-25, 25-16, 25-21, 25-23) over Lewis-Clark State College. Front row seniors Josee Pendleton and Mariah Diaz were the team's two leaders in kills and in blocks, combining for 28.5 of the team's 62 total points.
 
The Lady Argos started conference play on a stunning streak of poor performances, that included a four-match losing streak, three of which were conference matches, and two straight-set losses. UP ended the streak with an epic 3-2 win over Carroll College the previous weekend and followed that up with the strong win against LC State.
 
One theme during that streak was the absence of Diaz, a strong player and emotional leader who missed the team's first three conference matches with an injury and returned for the Carroll match.
 
"I think getting Mariah back changes what we can do offensively and defensively with her blocking talents," Head Coach Arunas Duda said. "Just being able to run a 6-2 offensive again, to be big up front, and spread our offense out has made a world of difference. They've been competing in practice really hard and it's been a big difference."
 
Those differences weren't apparent in a disappointing first set. UP hit for a percentage of .027 in the set while giving up 16 kills to the Warriors. The only Lady Argo hitter to hit well in the set was Pendleton who had 3 kills and 0 errors.
 
Even with her being the team's top hitter in the first set, Duda challenged the senior middle blocker to step up to the strong play of the Warrior's middle blocker. Pendleton responded with her best match of the year.
 
"We were getting burned in the middle. LC ran their middle extremely well and we sat Josee down at one point and said, 'take this personally,'" Duda said. "To her credit, she absolutely did that and went above and beyond. Man, I'll tell you what, she had a fire in her and if she can continue that, she's going to be tough to stop."
 
A fired-up Pendleton and a healthy, motivated Diaz helped lead a turnaround performance in the second set. While UP only managed 8 kills in the set, the team avoided costly errors,  instead  keeping the ball alive until the Warriors made errors of their own. LC ended the set with 9 hitting errors, 3 serving errors, and 2 ball handling errors.
 
Those mistakes gave UP a comfortable 25-16 win in the second set to tie the match at 1-1 and give the home team the bulk of the momentum. That momentum carried through to the third set where the Lady Argos got out to a huge 12-4 lead.
 
LC State fought back and eventually closed the gap to 23-20 but a kill from Diaz won set-point for UP. Freshman setter Ava Larkin then used a well-timed setter dump to catch the Warriors off guard and put the Lady Argos ahead in the match 2-1.  
 
The fourth set was by far the closest. Both teams claimed multiple-point leads at different points, but the scored ended up tied at 20-20. At that point in the match, Diaz had 9 kills, good for second on the team, but with the 5 more points needed to win the match, the Lady Argos turned to the senior.
 
Diaz had 4 kills in the last 8 rallies of the match, including scoring the points that gave UP match point and then the win.
 
By the end of the match, the senior right side hitter set a new career high with 13 kills and she reached that number while committing just 2 hitting errors. She also had 4 block assists which  was  second only to Pendleton. 
 
Pendleton tied a season high of 11 kills with just 4 errors and also added a team-leading 5 block assists. 
 
Sophomore libero Brooke Foth led the Lady Argos with 13 digs, giving her 10 or more digs in each of the team's past six matches.
 
UP's record is now 15-7 (2-3) on the year and puts the Lady Argos squarely in the hunt for third place in the Frontier Conference with Carroll College and Montana Western. After three straight home contests, the Lady Argos will go on the road and face one of the conference's top two teams, Montana Tech on October 6 at 7 p.m.