Box Score
FAIRBANKS, AK - The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team finished up their fourth straight road game and fell to Montana State-Billings 3-0 on Saturday night. The Yellowjackets used 17 kills and 11 digs from Devon Crotteau to capture their fifth straight win.
The Yellowjackets jumped out on the Nanooks and took the early 1-0 lead after winning the first set 25-20. Montana State-Billings never tailed in the first set and held a lead as big as seven. Trailing 19-12 the Nanooks clawed back to cut the lead down to 20-18 before the Yellowjackets scored five of the next seven points to win the set.
The Yellowjackets raced out a 9-2 lead in the second set and staved off a late Nanooks rally to win 25-22. Montana State-Billings had a comfortable lead at 18-11 before the Nanooks ran off a 4-0 run fueled by two Heather Lyons kills and two Yellowjacket attack errors. The Nanooks, however, could not complete the comeback and a Jody Lutz kill ended the set and gave Montana State-Billings a 2-0 lead.
Montana State-Billings dominated the third set on the way to a 25-11 victory, winning the match in three sets. The Nanooks took the first point of the set and saw the Yellowjackets gain the next five. The match was highlighted by 13-4 run by the Yellowjackets with the score 9-5.
The Nanooks were outhit .306-.115 for the match and only hit .026 in the third set. Montana State-Billings was also able to trump the Nanooks and lead the match in blocks, 8-3.
The Nanooks were co-led by Melissa Refuerzo (Anchorage, AK) and Heather Lyons (Anchorage, AK) who each had nine kills with Lyons also adding a team-high 10 digs. Jennifer Holland had eight digs and Alexa Sherman (Calabasas, CA) had 29 digs for the Nanooks.
Montana State-Billings was led by Crotteau who had a team high 17 kills and 11 digs. Jill Trabing led the match with 15 digs and Hillary Morrison had 34 assists in t he victory.
The win moves the Yellowjackets to 16-10, and 9-5 in the GNAC while the Nanooks drop to 11-14, and 5-9 in the GNAC.
Alaska will return to the court on Thursday when they will host Seattle Pacific University. Match time is set for 7:00 p.m. AKT.
