Oredigger Volleyball wraps up homecoming with sweep of Rocky

The Montana Tech volleyball team closed Homecoming Saturday the way the football team opened it with a convincing 3-set win over Frontier Conference rival Rocky Mountain College Saturday evening at Kelvin Sampson Court.  Hours after the football team annihilated MSU-Northen 73-0, it was Coach Brian Solomon's 19th-ranked women's volleyball team, behind the stellar play of junior outside hitter Olivia Muir, sweeping RMC 25-21, 25-16, 25-19.

After spotting Rocky a 5-0 lead in the first game, Muir and the Orediggers took over.   "She got hot and she was unstoppable for a stretch," reflected Solomon after the match, "and I thought our middles did a really good job too."  Muir's strong play showed in the stat line as she recorded 17 kills against a single error and added 2 assisted blocks defensively as well.  The "middles" were led by newcomer Olivia Cady, a freshman out of Missoula Sentinel, who led all players with 21 digs.  Junior McKenna Kaelber had 8 digs to go along with 8 assists and Jelena Jablanov, out of Novi Sad, Serbia, followed with 8 digs.  "That was one of our better offensive games," Solomon said. Junior Taylor Henley added 10 kills for the Orediggers and Maureen "Mo" Jessop continued her strong play with 8 kills and 5 digs.

The Diggers will get a couple of days off before they return to action Wednesday night against the University of Montana-Western.  The  Bulldogs were swept at home by MSU-Northern on Saturday but will not be overlooked as they were the last team to beat Montana Tech as they completed the sweep last month in Billings.  The teams will meet at 7pm and tickets are available in advance at the HPER or at godiggers.com.