HELENA — Behind Kelli Tikker's 17 kills and a team hitting percentage of .350, top-seeded Lewis-Clark State held off eighth-seeded Montana Tech 25-21, 25-20, 27-25 in the opening match of the 2011 Frontier Conference volleyball tournament Thursday in the Carroll College P.E. Center.
Montana Tech was led by Shersteen Cline with 10 kills while Allyse Cruise led he Orediggers with eight digs. Montana Tech ended its season with a 7-21 record.
“We competed very well today,” Montana Tech head coach Marilyn Tobin said. “Even though we lost, it was a competitive matchup today. We limited our unforced errors. We still had some and when you play the seventh-ranked team in the nation, a few is still too many.
“We played up to our level. The whole team played hard. Everybody had a really good match. “
Tobin said the Orediggers had been a little off in recent matches with some players performing well in some matches and others not so well.
“Everybody came to play today,” she said. “We were in control of the first game and it was 21-21 when Lauryn Herrick took the serve for them. She has a great jump serve, with spin. She leads the conference in aces per game
and she leads the conference for a reason.”
Herrick was just announced Thursday as the Frontier Conference Player of the Year.
“She was the first server in the second game and scored six points on us before we had a side out,” Tobin said. “We had to play catch-up with them the rest of the game. But for that 6-0, we played with them point for point.
“In the third game, we started off again playing well. It was 11-13 and they got on a three-point run, and at around 11-16, it was too big a run in a short amount of time.”
The Orediggers were focused on trying to pull the upset, their coach said.
“Even when we got down our players showed heart and determiniantion,” Tobin said. “When they stepped out on the court, they believed they could win. They had a ton of confidence and belief in themselves and the team.
“I told our players after the match I felt that a lot of teams in the nation, if they were playing L-C tonight, would not have competed as well as we did. I was really proud of our players today.”
