HELENA -- The 24th-ranked Montana Tech volleyball team closed out September with a huge five-set road victory at Carroll College Wednesday night.
The Orediggers shook off first- and fourth-set losses to top the Fighting Saints, 25-27, 25-19, 25-21, 17-25, 15-13, to retain sole possession of second place in the Frontier Conference standings.
Halle Moomaw put down 23 kills for Montana Tech (13-3, 8-2 Frontier), hitting .476 on the match, and the junior added five blocks to her line.
Rhys Layton had 33 assists, two aces, and a block for the Orediggers, while libero
Brooklynn Hayes dug out 26 Carroll attacks.
Kennedy Oman and
Madison Biery totaled six blocks apiece, contributing to the Orediggers' 15 as a team.
The two teams played to a 25-all tie in a back-and-forth first set, but a kill and a block won the Saints the opening stanza.
The Orediggers responded with a lightning-rod second, powered by six Moomaw kills. She landed her final two swings of the set to even the tally. Tech then finished the third on a 5-1 run, powered by a
Payton Treadwell kill, a Treadwell and Biery block, and one of Layton's two aces to take the 2-1 lead.
In the fourth, the Saints (12-5, 7-3) held Tech to just nine kills as they forced a fifth-and-deciding set.
Carroll rushed out to a 3-0 lead in the tiebreaker and led 13-11 before Montana Tech scored the match's final four points, three of them Moomaw kills, to wrap the evening up.
McKaila Balcom led CC with 12 kills and two blocks.
Montana Tech will hit the road again on Saturday, heading to Billings for a Frontier matchup with Rocky Mountain at 6 p.m.
Visit Montana Tech athletics' home online, GoDiggers.com, anytime for up-to-the-minute news and coverage of the Orediggers. Give Montana Tech athletics a like on Facebook, and follow the Orediggers on X and Instagram at @DiggerAthletics.
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