LEWISTON, Idaho - Even with a balanced attack, strong serving, and a great hitting percentage that led two victories in the first two sets, the Rocky Mountain College women's volleyball team still didn't have things under control.

 Check that, the Battlin' Bears didn't have Montana Tech's Maria McNeil under control.

That changed in the fourth game when RMC's front line of Katharina Hinrichsen, Jessica Overstreet, Jessica Eliasson and Jillian Stanek stopped Tech's 6-foot senior to complete a 25-13, 25-20, 23-25, 25-15 win over Montana Tech in the semifinals of the Bank of Whitman Frontier Conference Tournament at the Lewis-Clark State College Activity Center on Saturday.

The win lifts Rocky Mountain to 19-7 overall and into Saturday night's championship game where it will meet the winner of the other semifinal between Lewis-Clark State and Carroll. That semifinal game began at 1:05 p.m. and the title match is set for 7 p.m.

Tech, which finishes the year at 14-15, dug itself in holes in the first two games and would have been overwhelmed if not for the play of McNeil, who posted a tournament-high 24 kills in the match.

"We just couldn't shut her down," RMC coach Kathy Brown said. "She had a very nice game for them. In the four set, we finally had some people step up and stop her."

The Bears rolled to leads of 7-1 and 19-8 in rolling to the fourth-set victory.

While RMC played a solid match, Tech was its own worst enemy at times. The Orediggers committed 14 service errors and hit just .187 for the match. Rocky had only five service errors and hit .280, including .467 with five blocks in the fourth game. RMC also outblocked Tech 11-4.

"We don't miss a lot pf serves, we blocked well and we hit well," Brown said. "I like the way we are playing. Our kids don't give up and they are playing tough."

"We just dug ourselves in a hole every game that we lost and that was huge for us not to fall behind early," Tech coach Marilyn Tobin said. "Rocky is a very talented team and is playing well. And they are one of the few teams here that is playing at full strength."

Tech, which has been hampered by injuries this season including losing its starting middle blocker to a knee injury this week, seemed to gain momentum after the win in the third set, but RMC took it back with a strong start to the fourth set.

"You can't make as many errors as we did at this level and expect to win," Tobin said.

Eliasson and Stanek led RMC with 12 kills apiece, while Sarah Madinger had nine. Hinrichsen added four service aces and 12 digs for the No. 2 seed Bears.

Kristi Witt had 15 digs for the No. 6 seed Orediggers, while McNeil, along with Lacie Brenton, added 11 digs apiece.

"To be able to come in and win that first round match is a real positive for us," Tobin said. "Even though we lost today we are leaving with a positive feeling. We played our hearts out. Rocky has a great team."