LYNDSEY BENSON
Head coach
“In preparing for the match, I really stressed that we can’t overlook them. And when they came out, I think we were trying too hard to not overlook them. We probably played a little tight early.”

“The bottom line is: we have to keep getting better every single match. We’ve got seven left, and each one of those seven is just as important as the others. We cannot overlook any of them.”

“I thought our subs got in and finished the match very well. They’ve been doing a great job in practice against our frontline players, so we know they’re ready -- if they can compete against the best players that we have then we know they can compete on the floor.”

On the Montana match Saturday night:
“We lost to Montana at Montana earlier this season, so this is a big match for us on Saturday night. We need to win at home, and they’ve (the Grizzlies) have struggled so far on the road in the conference. We hope that continues, but we know it’s not going to be an easy match. They’re a tough matchup for us, so it’s a situation where we have to be at our best.”

How does it feel to be No. 1?:
“We don’t talk about it a whole lot as a team because there is so much of the season left. We can talk about it when the season’s over, but until then, we’ve still got a lot of matches to play. We’re two matches out of being sixth – there’s no reason for us to start getting arrogant. Every match is going to be important as we continue on through this second run through the conference.”

“Getting a majority of our matches at home (five at home, three on the road) through this second round is going to be huge for us. We play very well here at Butler-Hancock at home, so we need to use that to our advantage and get our wins at home and see how we can do on the road, against three teams that, right now, are tied for second in the league. It’s going to be a battle … but that’s what it’s about. Our team’s just eating it up right now -- to be involved in a conference race like this.”

LAUREN CARTER
Senior setter
“If we start thinking about it too much, it will be too much pressure on us. So we try not to think about it too much, and we just go out and play.”

On coming out tentative in the first set
“I’m not really sure why we came out like that tonight. We definitely weren’t playing like ourselves, and we had a little talk in the huddle and came out and really played well.”

Your thoughts on Kenzie Shreeve?
“Some might overlook some of her other abilities, but they shouldn’t because she’s awesome. She digs all the balls up and she’s a great defender. And serving? She’s really good at that too. She’s just a really good all-around player.”

KENZIE SHREEVE
Junior outside hitter
On focusing on being an all-around hitter:
“I really like getting the big hit, but I’m also good at playing in the back row. And that’s why they serve it at me so much, because they feel like they’re going to get an easy point. That’s what we work on in practice all the time -- just serving at me constantly and then going in and getting the hits. It’s just worked really well for me.”

“When I’m playing well in the back row, I just play better all-around. It’s an easier flow for me all the way around. When I’m lacking in one, then I get frustrated in the other. I don’t know why, but it happens.”

Is it hard to not overlook a team like Montana State?
“I guess we didn’t really have the emotional rush that we usually have on the court at the start of a match. We usually get going really quickly, and then we get the crowd into that. But tonight we really didn’t do that, we just kind of played at a lower level.”

TAYLOR SMITH
Junior middle blocker
“The thing about our conference is that any team can beat anybody on any given night, so there’s no way we should ever be overlooking anybody. We had the mindset heading into this game: ‘Do not overlook them.’ And after the slow start, we really played well.”

Would you rather play a match like tonight, or one with some more hype and intensity?
“Getting the experience of learning to put away a team like this is really good. It’s good to be able to overcome the type of start that we had tonight -- we were too relaxed. So it’s more fun to play a more intense match, but it’s important to play matches like this.”