Griffins sweep Skylights

The Montana State University-Northern volleyball team ended its last, and most difficult road trip of the regular season with a tough, three-game loss at Westminster College.

Saturday night in Salt Lake City, the Skylights were swept by the Griffins by scores of 25-14, 26-24 and 25-17. The loss, coupled with a Thursday night loss at nationally-ranked Lewis-Clark State, leaves MSU-N sitting at 4-8 in the Frontier Conference, tied with UGF for sixth place. The Skylights are 11-11 overall heading into the final week of the regular season.

Westminster came out strong with 13 kills and a .333 hitting efficiency in the first set. They had just one hitting error in the opening frame with Erika Evans posting five kills. MSU-N gave the Griffins a battle in set two. Trailing 22-24, the Griffins scored four straight points to secure the second set victory. Westminster hit .250 in the second set and recorded 14 kills. The Griffins finished with 44 kills while holding Northern to just 32 in the match. The .297 hitting efficiency is the second highest of the season, trailing just the .347 hit against Montana Western on September 16. Westminster also recorded 48 digs and four blocks. They held Northern to just .078 hitting and forced 23 hitting errors.

The Skylights got 10 kills, one ace and seven digs from Kaylee Bossert, while Brittany Baker had six kills and Elise Davis had three kills and one solo block. Karyssa Bowron paced the Northern defense with 15 digs.

The Skylights will return home to close out their regular season with match against Rocky Mountain College on Friday night and Carroll College on Saturday afternoon.

Westminster def. MSU-Northern

25-14, 26-24, 25-17

MSU-N — Kills 32 (Kaylee Bossert 10), Assists 32 (Jordan Merrill 27), Aces 4 (Brittany Baker 2), Digs 59 (Karyssa Bowron 15), Blocks 3 (Elise Davis 1).

WC — Kills 44 (Erika Evans 12, Kenzie Mitchell 12), Assists 40 (Emily Atkinson 36), Aces 8 (Steph Jones 5), Digs 48 (Evans 13), Blocks 4 (Mitchell 1).