BILLING, Mont. – Road wins are always hard to come by but when you are on the road against the No. 9 team in the country on their senior night, in front of a packed gym, it is even tougher. The Carroll College volleyball team did just that when they rallied to beat Rocky Mountain in five sets to earn a regular season co-championship and the second seed in next week's Frontier Conference Tournament.
The Bears earned an earned the 25-17 first-set win and looked to be in total control of the momentum going into the second but the Saints pulled away late for the 25-19 win.
In the third set Carroll jumped out to a 17-11 advantage before a 10-0 Rocky run propelled them into the lead. Rocky went ahead 23-19 but the Saints closed on a 7-1 run to take the 2-1 game lead.
Rocky battled back to take the fourth 25-22 to set up the all-important tiebreaker game.
The Saints and Bears battled to a 3-3 tie but Carroll then went on a 4-1 run to take a 7-4 lead. The cushion would be enough as the Saints battled their way to the 15-11 win.
The match was highlighted with several very long rallies leading to incredibly high numbers of attacks and digs from both teams. Rocky had 266 attacks to the Saints 263. The Bears tallied 157 digs only to be outdone by the Saints with 160.
"It was really good volleyball, it was a great match, really entertaining," head coach Moe Boyle said. "This was a total team effort. Our defense was incredible, our hitters had a hard time putting the ball away but they would find away, their blocking was great and our blocking was great. It was just two really good teams going at it and I am excited that we came out with the win."
Six Saints tallied double-digit digs, led by senior libero
Rebecca Sweeney who tallied a career-high 38. Carroll had 16 blocks as a team, the highest since the season opener against Pacific Union.
"It was just a matter of determination," Sweeney said. "Everyone is working together for a goal, the blocking was there and they were forcing the hitters to hit to a place we could cover."
Holly Morehouse tallied 18 kills to lead the Saints,
Crystal Schmidt had 13 kills and
Paige Montgomery and
Emily Sullivan had 10 kills each for Carroll. The Saints tallied their lowest hitting percentage of the season .110 but held Rocky to an even lower percentage of .098.
The match went well over two hours, grueling for a home team but for the Saints it was the second match of a season ending road trip that included several hundred miles in vans and a flight from Spokane to Billings via Seattle.
"It was a long, long, long match," head coach Moe Boyle said. "It was really cool to see what we could do after such a long road trip and I was really happy about our fitness in the fifth set. For us to come out with a win, we had to have all of our ducks in a row."
The win was special for Sweeney who earned her first win at Rocky Mountain in her career. It is the first road win over Rocky since a 3-2 victory in 2010.
"It is very, very cool for me," Sweeney said. "All I ever remember is leaving the gym disappointed and thinking about how much better we should have played. It is a great way to close out my senior year. I am really proud about how we played tonight."
The Saints now prepare for the Frontier Conference Tournament this week. The rotating tournament has made its way to the Helena and will be hosted at the PE Center. The Saints hope to use the momentum of the match, along with home court advantage next weekend.
"It is going to give us a lot of confidence going into the conference tournament," Sweeney said. "It is always a good thing to have that belief that you are going to win. It is exciting to have the tournament at home and this win is just going to build on that as we go into the tournament."
The Saints face Montana Western in the first round of the tournament.
