Box Score
ELLENSBURG (Oct. 14) -- Senior Kady Try (Brentwood, Calif./Mead HS) was the only player with double figures in kills with 16, and junior Meg Ryan (Spokane/Mead HS) shattered her previous career-high for service aces with five as the Central Washington University volleyball team defeated visiting Montana State University Billings 25-15, 25-14, 22-25, 25-7 on Thursday night at Nicholson Pavilion.
The win upped Central's overall record to 8-7 and its conference mark to 6-4. Montana State Billings fell to 2-17 overall and 2-8 in the GNAC.
Try's 16 kills were slightly below her season average of 4.36 per set, but were more than enough for the Wildcats, who offensively did not have another player with more than seven kills in the match. MSU Billings' top attacker was Jennifer Boe, who had seven kills as well.
Ryan, meanwhile, spearheaded a mean service effort from the Wildcats as she fired five aces at the Yellowjackets. Central finished the night with 11 aces to tie their previous season-high for aces -- one match removed from being held without an ace for the first time in 11 years against Alaska last Saturday night.
The match was never really in doubt for the Wildcats, although Montana State Billings kept the set score close in the first set before a 4-0 CWU rally gave the hosts a 14-10 lead. They would scored 15 of the final 20 points in the set to win 25-15, before leading from start-to-finish in the second set for a 25-14 win.
In the third set, the Wildcats rested two of their starting players and watched Montana State Billings turn its best offensive frame of the match -- a .200 hitting percentage -- to ruin Central's hopes of a 3-0 sweep.
CWU closed the match out with a commanding 25-7 win with all of its starters playing most of the way. The Wildcats scored 11 of the first 12 points, including a 10-0 run following a 1-1 tie, and cruised to the 18-point win.
Central finished with a commanding edge on offense with a .213 hitting percentage compared to Montana State Billings' minus-.017 -- the first negative efficiency by a Wildcat opponent since 2008. They also outscored the Yellowjackets by seven at the service line and had a 61-48 edge in digs.
Following Try in the kill department for CWU were Ryan and senior Kristel Baeckel (Gresham, Ore./Sam Barlow HS) with seven apiece. Ryan, Try, and junior setter Carlee Marble (La Conner) had nine digs each, all finishing second to senior libero Brandie Vea (Honolulu, Hawaii/Kalani HS) with a match-high 16 digs.
Central Washington will now play its next four matches on the road, beginning with a Saturday afternoon match at conference co-leader Seattle Pacific at 2 p.m. in Seattle. The Wildcats will also visit Northwest Nazarene (Oct. 23), Saint Martin's (Oct. 28), and Western Oregon (Oct. 30) before playing their next home match on Nov. 4 against Alaska.
