BILLINGS, Mont. – The #9 University of Providence volleyball team took down Rocky Mountain College in a closely-contested three-set battle Saturday afternoon. The Argos (18-2, 5-0) defeated the Battlin' Bears (10-13, 2-3) 25-22, 29-27, 25-22 in their 11th straight win of the season.
"It seemed like it was back and forth the whole match," head coach
Arunas Duda said. "It was pretty much two or three-point runs for each team. Momentum just kept switching back and forth. That pretty much held true for most of the match."
The two teams battled throughout each of the three sets, but the Argos remained calm and composed when it mattered most to pull out each game.
"We kept amazing composure towards the end of each set," Duda said. "The girls didn't panic, they didn't freak out or anything. We were able to continue to run our system and got some key plays down the stretch of each game to flip the score. I'm really proud of how they kept it together and stayed calm."
Sadie Lott led the attack for the Argos with 12 kills.
Jenna Thorne added nine,
Bailey Christensen added eight and
Zoe Naugle added seven.
Cydney Finberg-Roberts directed traffic effectively, recording 38 assists.
New program dig-leader Sacha Legros led the team with 23 digs. Lott led the defense of the net, recording eight blocks on the day.
The Battlin' Bears had a balanced attack, with Bella Bryan, Taylor Wolf and Makenna Bushman recording seven kills on the day. Blythe Sealy led the team with 17 assists, while Ayla Embry recorded 21 digs.
The win puts the Argos at 18-2 on the season, with five games left in the regular season. The Argos are so far undefeated against conference foes and will next take on Montana Tech in a home game on Oct. 22. First-serve will take place at 7:00 p.m.
"Now that everyone has seen us, everybody is defending our strengths a little bit better," Duda said. "Tonight especially, they keyed in on Sadie in certain situations. We have to go back and be a little bit more creative on what we're doing on our side of the ball. We don't want to change too much. We're doing some things pretty well. We don't want to reinvent the wheel just maybe tweak a couple things here or there."
