Montana Tech Athletics

HELENA -- The Montana Tech volleyball team's quest for a Frontier Conference tournament championship fell short in the semifinal round Friday evening. 

The second-seeded Orediggers fell to No. 6 seed and tournament host Carroll, 17-25, 25-23, 25-27, 25-22, 15-12. 

Halle Moomaw led the charge for Montana Tech (23-7) with a season-high 24 kills. The first-team all-conference honoree hit .553 for the match. Talan Dodson and Payton Treadwell joined her in double-figure kills, spiking 15 and 13, respectively. 

Rhys Layton made 53 assists to go with 14 digs and two aces, and Brooklynn Hayes dug out 27 Saints attacks. 

Montana Tech started off with a 6-2 run, three points of which came on Moomaw kills, and never looked back. The Orediggers hit .452 with just one attack error en route to the first-set win. 

In the second, it was Carroll (21-10) that got out to the fast start. The Fighting Saints led 9-5 in the early going, but Tech began to chip away as the set wore on. The Orediggers rattled off a 9-3 run of their own to take the lead, 17-16, after Hayes' ace. Tech led again, 20-19, but the Saints responded with three straight points and held on to even the score. 

Treadwell and Dodson carried the water for the Orediggers in the third, each tallying four kills as Tech overcame an early deficit to force a 24-all tie. After CC's McKaila Balcom put down a kill to force set point, Dodson evened the score at 25 with a kill, and Kenedee Moore rattled off two straight aces to give the Orediggers the 2-1 lead. 

Neither team took control early in the fourth. After a Moomaw kill tied the tally at 12, the Saints ripped off a 6-1 run to take the lead for good. The Orediggers trimmed the lead to two, but Carroll held on for the 25-22 win and forced the deciding fifth set. 

The Orediggers forced a Saints timeout with an 8-6 lead in the fourth, but Carroll came out of the break with an 8-3 run to take the set and the match. 

Carroll will square off with top-seeded Bellevue for the Frontier tournament championship Saturday evening. The Fighting Saints earned the league's second automatic qualifier to the NAIA national tournament with Friday's semifinal win and the Bruins' victory in the other semi. 

Montana Tech will hope to hear its name as an at-large selection Monday when the NAIA announces the full tournament field. The Orediggers were ninth in the latest West Region Area Rating Committee rankings. 

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