Box Score BILLINGS, Mont.- After dropping the first two sets, the Orediggers rally to knock off the Battlin' Bears in a five-set thriller.

In the first set, the Bears would jump out to a quick 2-0 lead. A lead they would never give up. The Orediggers would pull within one, and the Bears would respond and run the lead out to five. The set would end in favor of the Rocky 25-21. The Bears hit .237 in the first, with 13 kills. The Diggs would tally one more kill but finished with a .159 hitting percentage.

The Orediggers started with more urgency in the second set, going up 4-1 early. After trading side-outs, Rocky would answer with their own solid 5-0 run to go up 9-6. They would run that up to eight points (17-9), and finish the set with a 25-18 win, going up two sets to none.

All signs pointed to an early end to the evening.

Then the -third set started, and the tide shifted, greatly. Montana Tech leading 2-1, would rally, and jump out to an 8-1 lead. Rocky would get a side-out, cutting their lead to six. Tech would go on three more significant rallies to go up 24-4. They quickly won the set 25-6 hitting .429 as a team, while Rocky finished with a -.121 hitting percentage with 10 attack errors.

The Orediggers kept the throttle wide open in the fourth set, winning 25-14. Freshman Madison Biery would put down four kills in the fourth, and senior Megan Benton would tally three. Tech would finish with 14 kills in the fourth as opposed to six for the Bears.
The Orediggers would keep a hold of that incredible momentum and take the fifth set 15-8, to win the match 3-2 and avenge a loss to Rocky to start the conference season.

Junior Kinnidi Willmore led the Orediggers with 16 kill, while hitting .333. Piper Jette finished with 14 kills, and both Olivia LaBeau and Megan Benton finished in double digits with 10 kills.

Setter Rhys Layton would accrue 50 assists, the third time she has accumulated 50 or more this season. Fifth-year senior Jelena Jablanov led the Orediggers in digs with 21.

Rocky Mountain College (10-9, 2-5) was led by Lidia Fontaine with 14 kills.

The Orediggers (11-6, 5-2) will travel to Arizona for three non-conference games this coming week. They will play Arizona Christian on Thursday, Embry Riddle on Friday, and Benedictine Univ. – Mesa on Saturday.