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GREELEY, Colo. -- Northern Colorado volleyball is on some kind of roll.

The Bears didn't play the greatest match of their season Thursday night against Montana -- they've finished with a lower home hitting percentage just one other time this year -- and still managed to secure a comfortable 3-1 victory against the Grizzlies inside Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion.

Montana (10-13, 6-6 Big Sky) ended the match with more digs (76-72), more blocks (10-9), more kills (54-53) and more assists (51-4) than Northern Colorado, but the Bears (17-9, 10-2) got the necessary points and plays needed to avenge a previous loss to UM this season and win five consecutive matches for just the fourth time in head coach Lyndsey Benson's five seasons in Greeley.

Set scores were 25-17, 18-25, 25-23, 25-21.

Northern Colorado, which has already matched its overall and conference win totals from last season, came into Thursday's match in control of its own destiny in the Big Sky title chase. The Bears continue to share the top spot with Portland State in the standings but they have a head-to-head victory against the Vikings already in their corner.

Northern Colorado knows it can win out and claim the school's first Big Sky Conference team crown. It's now a step closer to that moment, thanks to a gritty victory Thursday night.

"We definitely didn't play our best tonight," said Benson, who improved to the .500 mark in her head coaching career (71-71) with the victory. "But I thought the girls stayed mentally strong for most of the match, and we were able to utilize our strengths when we really needed to in order to get a big win.

"Montana is just one of those teams that seems to bring out the best and the worst in us, and that definitely held true tonight. They are a good team, and I'm glad we got the win and can move forward."

Senior Kenzie Shreeve had one of the best matches of her season in the Northern Colorado victory. She finished with a match-high 16 kills with just a single error in 46 swings (.326) and had eight digs. That's the highest hitting percentage with that many kills the senior from Eagle, Colo., has racked up this season, and it's the best she's hit in any of Northern Colorado's 12 previous Big Sky matches.

Senior Taylor Smith also played well, contributing seven kills and five blocks, and sophomore Breanna Williams provided a needed spark off the bench with eight kills in two games played.

Defense, however, seemed to propel the Bears to the win.

Montana's Jaimie Thiebault, for example, entered the match leading the Big Sky Conference and ranked 16th in the country in hitting percentage at .388, but she was limited Thursday to 11 kills with seven errors on 32 attacks (.125).

Senior Breanna VanDerMost, with 22 digs, and sophomore Amanda Arterburn, with 14, keyed the Bears' defensive surge. VanDerMost has now notched double-digit digs in 22 of the Bears' 26 matches this season.

"We've watched a lot of film all week on Thiebault," Arterburn said. "They really like to run some plays with her where she just kills it down in perfect spots, so we focused on our placements and tried to be in good defensive positions to combat her and all their players."

The Bears played one of their absolute worst matches of the year earlier this season in Missoula, and their series with the Griz is now dead-even at 5-5. Looking further, Thursday's match featured 26 ties and 10 lead changes.

It seems a definite rivalry is brewing between the two programs.

"This match was really like a roller-coaster," Arterburn said. "They would get up on us, and then we'd come back and get a run of our own going to take back some momentum. I know I never felt comfortable out there -- they were always right there, or we were always getting at them. It's a big win for us."