Final Stats

ORLANDO, Fla. - The University of North Florida women's volleyball team battled hard against a similar Montana State squad and came up short on Saturday at the UCF Invitational by scores of 30-27, 30-22, 30-23, in a match that was neck-and-neck the entire way.

UNF (1-9) hit a season-best .259 but was outdone by Montana State's mark of .394. The Lady Ospreys were plagued by inaccuracy on serves with 10 errors, two of which ended games. Senior right side Claire Yonutas led UNF with a career-high 12 kills to go along with nine assists, four digs and a .476 hitting percentage.

Game one established the theme of evenly matched teams with five lead changes and 12 ties. The Lady Ospreys grabbed control early with a 12-9 lead made possible by kills from Read and Stroder. UNF continued to hold a three point lead until later in the game when the Bobcats scored three straight points to tie the score at 16.

After a timeout by the Lady Ospreys, they stormed back to redeem their point lead on a kills by Sturch and Stroder along with a Sturch ace. But MSU didn't back down and came back to tie the score at 21 on a run that was sparked by two consecutive kills from Patti Anderson.

Neither team gave an inch until the Bobcats were able to break a 26-26 tie and score three straight points to control the game at 29-26. UNF had one last chance to make a late charge after it got the sideout on an MSU ball handling error, but a short serve by Sturch crashed into the net to give the first game to the Bobcats.

The second game continued with the same theme as the first in the early going, but the Bobcats established control with the score tied at nine and went on a 9-2 run that effectively kept UNF out of striking distance the rest of the way. Each team had 16 kills in the game, but the Lady Ospreys committed four service errors and were blocked by Montana State three times.

MSU (1-9) looked as if it would run away with the third game, taking an 18-11 lead. But the Lady Ospreys battled back to cut the lead to 20-17. The Bobcats pushed back to go up 25-18 and later took a 27-20 lead. Kills by junior Bary Rasmussen and senior Amy Stroder got the Lady Ospreys closer, but it wasn't enough to overcome the large deficit.

Belvin had 28 assists, while UNF was led defensively by Stroder's eight digs to go along with her nine kills.

UNF will be back in action at 7 p.m. on Thursday against No. 8 Washington at UNF Arena in the UNF/JU Classic.