Jessop, Orediggers blast Western for 6th Straight Win

Maureen "Mo" Jessop and Alexis Umland brought the firepower Wednesday night at Kelvin Sampson Court as the red-hot Montana Tech Orediggers womens volleyball team swept their second-straight Frontier Conference match, 27-25, 25-14, 25-16, over the University of Montana-Western Bulldogs Wednesday night.  Jessop, a junior from Corvallis, led the way with a game-high 15 kills, followed by Umland's 9, 4 days after sweeping Rocky Mountain College.

Breakout game for Umland

Alexis Umland, a 5'10 sophomore out of Lolo, had a breakout game after seeing little action against Rocky.  "She played great," 11th-year Head Coach Brian Solomon said after the game.  "She made a lot of plays up on the net and she's so athletic, Solomon added, "It's a great time for her to step in and show what she can do for us and I thought "Mo" took a lot of big swings for us and scored a lot of points."  Jessop and Umland were backed up by the stellar play of junior setter McKenna Kaelber of Pasco, Washington and another strong game by junior Olivia Muir out of Smoot, Wyoming who had 7 kills to go with 2 digs.  With the victory, the Orediggers improve to 16-6 on the season along with a perfect 4-0 record in Frontier Conference play.

Middle Schoolers On Hand, Road Trip Awaits

The Orediggers on Wednesday night played in front of about 150 guests and their coaches from East Middle School who were a welcome addition to the regulars at Kelvin Sampson Court.  Montana Tech will put their unblemished conference record on the line Saturday night as they travel to Havre to take on MSU-Northern.  After returning to the Mining City they will head to Wisconsin the following weekend for 4 matches in a tournament being put on by Viterbo University.