BILLINGS -- Rocky Mountain College had just enough gas left in the tank at home to rally past a salty Montana Tech team in Thursday's Frontier Conference volleyball semifinal.
The Bears held on to win a five-set thriller after playing from behind most of the match, which lasted three hours, five minutes.
Montana Tech stormed out to a 25-15 win in the opening set and nearly took Set Two, falling 27-25. The Orediggers claimed the third set 25-21 before Rocky answered with a 25-19 win in the fourth and closed out the match 15-8.
Wieying Wu led the Bears with 17 kills followed by Monique Rodriguez and Taylor Wolf each with nine. Libero Ayla Embry led everybody with 21 digs for Rocky. Addy Valdez had 15.
Karina Mickelson accounted for 21 kills for Montana Tech. Maureen Jessop finished with 19. Defensively, Hannah Oggerino delivered 17 digs for the Orediggers, while Jessop, Sarah Hopcroft and McKenna Kaelber each contributed with 14.
Rocky (17-3) will travel to top-seeded University of Providence Saturday at 7 p.m. in Great Falls to determine the Frontier Conference tournament champion and automatic bid to this year's national tournament. UP (19-2) took three of four matches from Rocky this regular season and beat MSU-Northern 3-0 in Thursday's other semifinal. The Argos have won 17 straight matches.
