(Editor's note: MSUB Athletics release)
BILLINGS - Senior right-side hitter Bayli Monck earned a spot on the 2021 Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s preseason all-conference Team, the league announced. Monck is the first Montana State University Billings volleyball player to be named to the GNAC’s Preseason All-Conference team since Izela Alvarez accomplished the same feat in 2018.
“Bayli is so deserving of this honor,” MSUB head coach Casey Williams said. “She has worked hard for the last four years to make herself stand out among the GNAC. She is a force and she’ll end her career on her best year yet.”
Monck comes into her fifth year at MSUB poised to be in the program’s top-10 rankings in several statistical categories. Throughout her career, she has amassed 898 kills, 757 digs, 206 block assists (8th all-time at MSUB) and 64 service aces in 366 sets played. During her breakout junior campaign – in which she became the seventh MSUB volleyball player to earn first-team all-GNAC honors – Monck finished in the GNAC’s top-20 rankings in both kills and digs, while leading the team with 314 kills (2.73/set).
Although the 2020 regular season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Monck was one of the Yellowjackets’ leaders during the shortened spring season. The Colorado native notched four double-doubles, averaged over 10 kills per game, and ranked second on the team in kills (92) and kills-per-set (3.29). In the season-finale against Carroll College on March 30, Monck set a career-high with 23 kills – including three in the fifth set – en route to a ‘Jackets win.
The other preseason all-conference selections were: Malia Aleaga (Western Washington), Tia Andaya (Central Washington), Maddie Batiste (Seattle Pacific), Ellen Floyd (Alaska Anchorage), Brooke Foster (Northwest Nazarene) Gabby Gunterman (Western Washington), Hannah Hair (Seattle Pacific), Calley Heilborn (Western Washington), Ashley Kaufman (Central Washington), AveRee Reynolds (Alaska), Julia Tays (Simon Fraser) and Cate Whiting (Alaska). Alaska Anchorage’s junior opposite hitter Eve Stephens was named the Preseason Player of the Year. Western Washington, the preseason pick to win the GNAC, led all teams with three selections.
Monck and the Yellowjackets – who were picked eighth in the GNAC Preseason Poll on Monday – will kick off the 2021 season with a home doubleheader at the Yellowjacket Invitational Presented by Hilton Garden Inn on Sept. 3. The team’s first game is against Black Hills State University at 1 p.m., followed by a 7 p.m. game against Bemidji State.
