Brick Breeden Fieldhouse packed for heartbreaking loss

For weeks, signs promoting the Cat-Griz volleyball game and asking fans to “pack the brick,” cropped up around campus. They lined sidewalks and popped up on advertising boards to build excitement for the first major Brawl of the Wild of the school year. On Friday night, the MSU community delivered.

The two squads in this year’s edition of the match were both looking for a big win, with the Bobcats seeking momentum to kick start their season and the Griz hoping to maintain their perfect conference record.

Of course, there was much more on the line than the implications for the season. Everyone in Montana knows that it just means more when these two schools face off. The fierce, historic rivalry between the two is well documented, and the competitive fire extends to the volleyball court.

The attendance record for volleyball in the Big Sky Conference was broken on Friday night, with a whopping 6,457 fans coming to see the Cats battle it out with their perennial rivals from Missoula.

With the fieldhouse essentially packed to capacity, the atmosphere itself was a spectacle. 6:30 - I arrive at the stadium. The crowd is humming, but the noise is far from overwhelming with only half the stadium full. The marching band begins to fill the stands and the bass of a Cardi B song thumps over the loudspeakers. The players warming up on both sides look at ease.

6:40 - The crowd has not grown by a considerable amount. I begin to wonder if the campaign to fill the seats was in vain. Despite this, the players are starting to sense the arrival of game time. There’s urgency and intensity in their movements.

6:45 - The crowd has grown in a steady stream in the past few minutes, and the noise level has increased by several degrees.

The marching band starts playing. In the confines of the arena, the sound thunders through the space.

6:50 - The stadium is perhaps at 75% capacity, and the student sections are full, although little more than a sea of white bucket hats, which were given out for free at the beginning of the game, is visible. When the fight song starts up, the rhythmic motion of the crowd joining in is a sight to behold with both eyes and ears.

The Cats are in a pre-game huddle. The hype is real. They’re ready and raring to go.

6:55 - The Brick is full, and it is deafening. Players on both sides move about restlessly, feeling the energy in the building.

7:00-The buzzer sounds. Let’s go.

The Bobcat starters are announced, accompanied with smoke, fire and the ear-splitting support of the home crowd. The place is buzzing by the time everyone is in position on the court. The fire present in the players' mannerisms has grown. It’s gametime.

The Griz snagged the first point before most people even knew the match had started. The Cats took the lead about halfway through, however, and never gave it back, winning the opening set, 25-18.

After securing the set, the fight song was played once more and the Brick was somehow even louder than it had been the first time.

The game felt almost like a block party between the chants and sheer level of noise coming from the students to an epic drumline performance from the Spirit of the West. Underscoring it all was the collective desire to see the Cats beat the Griz. But this was a hope destined to give way to disappointment.

After the first set, the Griz’s guard tightened up, seeming to be more like an impenetrable fortress than a defensive unit. The spectacular blocking on display from Montana, when combined with a number of MSU miscues, led to the Cats dropping the next three sets and, consequently, the match.

Watching the wave of bucket-hat adorned heads nodding back and forth, near-silently watching the ball in play during the last few points was heartbreaking. What might have been even harder to endure, however, was the sight of the MSU players leading one final rendition of the fight song, with expressions more dejected than I had thought possible.

But the Cats received an overwhelming level of support.

“We were thankful for such an amazing crowd,” said Lauren Lindseth, a freshman libero and defensive specialist. “We just ended up falling short.”

Camryn Greenwald, freshman middle blocker and outside hitter, felt similarly. “We knew Bobcat nation was going to show up and we wanted to put on a show,” Greenwald said. Speaking to the crowd’s effect on the game, Greenwald said, “I think it gave us energy, but also put some pressure on us that we had to learn to deal with. Made [the game] really emotional.”

While the agony of defeat is certainly fresh in the collective psyche of Bobcat Nation it won’t last forever. The team is resilient. And when the Cats return to this stage, Bobcat Nation will be right there beside them, ready to support them with an energy that I have yet to experience anywhere else.