Great Falls, Mont. – In a heavyweight matchup that featured two Top 25 teams, 16^th-ranked University of Providence fell to 18th-ranked Montana Tech 3-1 (26-24, 25-18, 17-25, 26-24).

"Tonight it came down to little things, and we didn't do the little things very well," head coach Arunas Duda said. "We were about four points away from winning that match. There were two sets where we were tied at 24 with every opportunity to win and just couldn't capitalize. Pretty close but not close enough."

The Diggers got off to a hot start, climbing to a 7-2 lead and forcing Duda to use an early timeout. The Argos clawed their way back into it, tying it at 24-24 until Tech closed it out. After dropping the second set, the Argos responded with a powerful third set performance. The 4^th set was back and forth the entire time, again reaching 24-24 until Tech pulled away to close it out. 

"You could tell we were a little bit out of sync and that the chemistry was a little off to start the match," Duda said. "Once we settled down we played extremely well. I thought we did a really good job of coming back. I just felt like all night long the scouting report was there, our opportunities were there, we just couldn't capitalize on them. Give Tech some credit for that, they did some nice things, but I just felt like we couldn't capitalize on our opportunities when they presented themselves."

Averi Dyer led the team with 23 digs. Cyndey Finberg-Roberts led the team with 26 assists while Renae Davis had 19. Kelsey Shaver poured it a monster performance for the Argos. She recorded 18 kills with .341 hitting percentage. She also was second on the team in digs with 19.

"She's our go-to player and everyone knows she's our go-to player, and she still had a wonderful performance," Duda said. "Hitting .341 as an outside when everyone knows the ball is going to you, that's a really gritty performance. We're really proud of her."

The Argos must rebound quickly, as they travel to Idaho for a match against Lewis and Clark College at 3 p.m. Sept. 21 in Lewiston.

 "We talked in the locker room about not repeating mistakes and trying to capitalize on those opportunities when they were given to us," Duda said. "It's just one match. We don't reset everything, you just make some changes and we have to grow from it."