HELENA, Mont. – The No. 23 Rocky Mountain College volleyball team saw its quest for a Frontier Conference title fall short in a five-set loss to No. 14 Montana Tech on Saturday night in the championship match of the Frontier Conference Tournament.
Rocky (23-11) held a 2-1 lead in the title match before Montana Tech (22-8) rallied for the 25-18, 18-25, 26-28, 25-23, 15-11 victory. The Battlin' Bears will now wait to see if they earn an at-large invite to the NAIA National Championship.
The final match was everything you would want with a title on the line. Each team recorded 68 kills and Rocky finished with a slight 173-172 edge in digs. The Battlin' Bears hit .145 and had 11 blocks in defeat.
Hailey Copinga led all players in the match with 20 kills. The junior hit .283 and totaled a career-high 35 digs.
Daniella Russell added 14 kills while
Sydney Matheny and
Olivia L'Ami finished with 12 and 11 respectively.
Rocky had five players reach double figures in digs and they were led by the career-high 45 of
Holland Fergurson.
Natalie Hilderman ended with 58 assists and 32 digs.
Haley Druyvestein led Tech with 15 kills. Sabrina Hopcroft had 53 digs.
Rocky reach the final by defeating Carroll 25-13, 24-26, 26-24, 25-18 earlier Saturday.
In that match, Copinga finished with 16 kills and Fergurson had 36 digs.
The NAIA will announce the 44-team field for the 2017 NAIA National Championship on Monday at 9 a.m. MT via their Facebook page. Should Rocky receive an invite, they would likely play an opening round match on November 18.
