HELENA, Mont. – The 18th-ranked Carroll College volleyball team earned the outright Frontier Conference championship with a 25-13, 17-25, 25-22, 25-19 win over Rocky Mountain College Saturday afternoon at the PE Center.
The outright Frontier Conference title is the first in head coach Moe Boyle's 12-year tenure. She has shared the title three times and won conference tournament titles but this is the first for her as a coach at Carroll. The accomplishments are historical but the advantage of the first-round bye in the conference tournament will pay huge dividends.

"In my 12 years here at Carroll, this is my first outright conference championship," Boyle said. "It means a lot to this team, especially our seniors.  The bye is huge for us, the conference tournament is always difficult and every match is a battle. We don't have the luxury of knowing who we will play but it will be an opportunity to focus on our side of the net and get better this week."

The Saints have struggled down the stretch with slow starts. That would not be the case Saturday. Leading 10-8 in the first set, Carroll rattled of 11-straight points behind the serving of senior Natalie Kassa to take a huge lead en route to the 25-13 set win. The Saints had 19 kills and just one error in the first set for an amazing .500 hitting percentage.

"It isn't just the seniors that get emotional about it," Boyle said. "The rest of the players were emotional and us as coaches are emotional it is a bitter-sweet day and it was pretty exciting to see the way they came out and played. You saw the lull in the second set and I think that was a little bit of the emotional drain but in the middle of the third we found it again and closed it out."

Rocky Mountain battled back to take the second set 25-17 and held a 14-10 lead in the third set before the Saints composed themselves and went to work. The Saints went on a 6-1 run and down 20-19, closed the match on a 6-2 run to win 25-22.

"There is a point in the match where you could see the momentum go and it was frustrating as a coach but we kept our composure," Boyle said. "The seniors were here to play and they knew how important this was for us as a team. They certainly showed up for us tonight."
The fourth set followed a similar script. Tied at 13, Carroll went on a 6-1 run to take a 5-point lead that would hold for the Saints to earn the 25-19 win.

Paige Montgomery notched 17 kills on 32 attacks for a .438 hitting percentage. Holly Morehouse had 16 kills but hit just .104.

"Holly had a tough day and yet had 16 kills and helped us," Boyle said. "Catherine Sloan played better defense than I have ever seen her play. She has been solid for us all season but today was her best defensive match. If we get players that step up when another player isn't at their best, we are going to continue to get better."
 
Another big lift came from junior Casey McInerney who came off the bench to notch four kills on 13 attempts for a .231 hitting percentage.

"All of our bench players have worked really hard and sometimes when you give a kid a shot, they go out there and take care of business," Boyle said. "Casey went out there today to prove something and she kept proving it. She is a big force on the block, did a nice job offensively and she picked up a couple of digs that could have been points for the other team I am really proud of the way she came off of the bench."

The conference championship will take place at the University of Great Falls next Friday and Saturday.