Big Sky, big possibilities for Bobcat volleyball

Heading into the last month of the regular season, the MSU volleyball team is in a three-way tie atop the Big Sky Conference (BSC) and trending in the right direction. With seven conference games under their belt, the team boasts a mark of six wins and one loss — a massive improvement from last fall, where the team ended conference play with nine wins and seven losses.

Prior to the start of the season, Matt Houk was named as the 12th head coach of the MSU volleyball program. Houk led the University of South Dakota (USD) to a 97-85 record, the best winning percentage in USD history. Most recently, he worked as associate head coach at the University of Minnesota, a well-regarded Big Ten program that Houk helped to three NCAA Final Four appearances and two Big Ten Conference titles during his tenure. “We were trying to look for the place where we thought volleyball was gonna matter because we've been in this long enough to know that that doesn't occur at every school,” Houk said.

   With a new coach at the helm and a veteran group featuring six seniors and six juniors, the team found itself in a position to massively improve from last fall’s season that saw the team’s run end in the semifinals of the BSC tournament.

   While the team knew it could make some noise this year, that belief initially didn’t extend to the broader volleyball community. A BSC preseason conference coaches poll projected MSU as the fourth-best team in the conference. In the first regular season game, the team knocked off Pac-12 Conference member Oregon State University (OSU) in five sets. The massive upset over OSU reinforced the belief around the team that they had the ability to compete with anyone. 

   “I think they felt like, Okay, we can be good. Here’s this guy who’s been telling us we can be pretty good and now we have some tangible proof of that after this matchup against a team that plays in a power conference and had some physical talents,” Houk said. “There was a nice piece of proof to support the words that we’ve been telling you.”

   That first victory of the season propelled the team to a non-conference record of seven wins and one loss by mid-September. That stretch of games included the team securing a series of commanding victories, winning five matches in four sets and once in only three sets. The only loss during this period came at the hands of the Milwaukee Panthers at the St. Thomas Invitational, a tournament which took place in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

   The Bobcats tried to carry that early season momentum with them when MSU traveled to Reno, Nevada for the University of Nevada (UN) Invitational. Instead, they suffered their first setback of the young season. The team lost both of their games there, first to UN in four sets and then to University of California Berkeley in three. 

   The bright spot of the trip was that senior Kira Thomsen became the eighth Bobcat to reach 1,000 career digs and only the fourth Bobcat to reach both 1,000 career digs and 1,000 career kills. 

   A dig is when a defensive player successfully passes a ball after an attacking hit from an opponent, and a kill is when an attack directly leads to the team scoring a point. In essence, it shows the versatility that Thomsen brings to the team with her ability to play both sides of the ball. 

   Despite the remarkable individual accomplishment, the two losses marked the end of the non-conference games for the team and brought their record to seven wins and three losses.

   MSU opened conference play by cruising to victories against University of Idaho (UI) and Idaho State University (ISU), beating both teams in three sets. The following game was the team’s only conference defeat to date. MSU lost all three sets during a match at the University of Montana.  Instead of seeing the loss as a setback, Houk believed it was an opportunity for the team to gain experience with high-pressure moments. 

   “If we get this to a program to a level where we’re competing for conference championships we’re gonna feel the pressure in those moments,” Houk said. “We have a responsibility as a coaching staff to continue to add tools in the toolkit to allow them to have ways to deal with the heavy moment so that they can perform at their best.”

   Since that loss, MSU has notched four conference victories with wins over Northern Arizona University, University of Northern Colorado, Eastern Washington University and UI. That winning streak propelled the team to a three way tie for first place in the conference standings with Weber State and Sacramento State, all 6-1 in conference play.

   With just under half of the regular season behind them, it's become clear that the team’s depth and mental fortitude are strengths. 

   Thomsen has been exceptional this season, racking up three BSC Offensive Player of the Week honors early in the year, but she hasn’t done it alone. Junior Jordain Kamps and sophomore Lauren Lindseth have both earned BSC Defensive Player of the Week honors for their stellar performances. 

   “We have this nice little balance to us where not any one player has to carry that load,” Houk said. “I think that makes us a dangerous team to play against.”

   The clearest example of the team’s mental discipline is their ability to limit the number of errors during a game. Through seventeen games the team has committed only 342 attacking errors while their opponents have combined for 377 attacking errors. 

   On serve receptions, MSU has committed 76 errors, a stark contrast to the 107 errors for opposing teams on Bobcat serves. An error is considered a mistake that results in a point for the opponent, so by limiting errors, MSU is effectively limiting the number of easy points given to competing teams.

   The remaining slate of conference games sees the Bobcats take on Sacramento State twice and Weber State once in games that could be critical to seeding for the conference tournament since those three teams are currently tied for the top spot.  Five of the nine remaining regular season games take place in Shroyer Gym. The home venue has proved to be a major advantage for the team with an undefeated record of eight wins at home. 

   “We’ve seen that our support is second to none in this area of the country,” Houk said. “These athletes give up a lot of time, work really hard plus they're going to school full time and lots of them are working as well. [What] they put into this is a difficult endeavor, so it's really cool when they know that the work they’re doing means something to the community and in return the community shows up.”