Skylights spikers swept on final road trip

George Ferguson Havre Daily News sports editor gferguson@havredailynews.com

The road was once again unkind to the Montana State University-Northern volleyball team, as the Skylights were swept this past weekend on what was their final road trip of the season. MSU-N played valiantly in matches at Carroll College on Thursday night and Rocky Mountain College on Friday. But, the Skylights couldn't come away with a victory in either match. On Thursday night in Helena, MSU-N and Carroll played to a decisive fifth game for the second time this season. The Skylights beat the Saints in five games in Havre earlier in the season. However, on Thursday, it was Carroll which outlasted MSU-N, winning the fifth game 15-9. The Skylights dropped the first game of the match 30-21 but rebounded with a win in game two, 30-25. Carroll then went back ahead after winning game three 30-21. But Northern has shown a lot of resiliency lately, and the Skylights clawed their way back into the match by winning the do-or-die fourth game 30-28. However, it wouldn't be enough as Carroll held on in game five. Kaylee Bossert had a big match for MSU-N, racking up 17 kills, while Jennifer Rohl added six solo blocks and Brittni Sesler had 44 assists. Carroll got a match-high 20 kills and seven blocks from Haylee Otteson in the win. On Friday night, the Skylights traveled to Billings to take on RMC, and it was the Bears who won in four games. Rocky defeated MSU-N by scores of 30-27, 30-25, 32-34 and 30-21. The win means that the Bears swept the season series from MSU-N for the second straight season. Bossert had another big match for Northern, totaling 19 kills and three service aces, while Carlee Hoff chipped in with 22 digs in the loss. RMC got 13 kills each from Sarah Madinger, Kelly Fox and Jessica Elliason. The road losses dropped MSU-N's Frontier Conference record to 2-9 with three matches remaining. The Skylights host UM-Western on Friday night and Montana Tech on Saturday afternoon.