Skylights sweep, again

If the Montana State University-Northern volleyball team was a little sluggish in Thursday night’s win over the UM-Western Bulldogs, the Skylights were anything but on the back end of their most recent home stand.

MSU-N came out firing on all cylinders on Saturday afternoon at the Armory Gymnasium, and as a result, the Skylights stayed unbeaten in Frontier Conference play with a dominant three-set sweep over the visiting Westminster Griffins. Northern beat the Griffins by scores of 25-20, 25-13 and 25-9, as the Skylights moved to 5-0 in league play and 13-4 overall.

“The main thing we took away from the Western match was, knowing we can’t afford to come out and start slow,” Northern head coach Bill Huebsch said. “We talked about that in practice on Friday and I think the kids took it to heart. You could tell by the way we played today. They really came out with a better sense of urgency, and played with a lot of intensity early on.”

Indeed. Northern wasted little time in putting the talented Griffins, who won at Great Falls Friday night, on the defensive. A couple early kills by Erin Jensen got MSU-N off on the right foot, and a 6-0 run gave the Skylights a 9-6 lead in the first set. Kelsey Williams also began to heat up with the rest of the MSU-N offense, as she totaled four kills midway through the set, giving the Skylights a 20-16 lead, and from there they never looked back. A couple of nice scramble plays on defense, then a block by Jensen, and a kill by Alexis Nelson finished off the Griffins in the first set, and the route was on from there.

“We came out strong today, as opposed to how we started on Thursday,” said Williams, who led the Skylights in kills with 12. “I think we took Western a little lightly on Thursday night, and we realize we just can’t do that with anyone. So knowing that, we got off to a much better start today, and that strong start really pushed us to the win.”

And it was a win in which Northern made it look real easy after the first set.

In the second set, the Skylights ripped off a 7-0 run and led 7-0 on their way to hitting a scorching .344. MSU-N continued to turn up the heat defensively as well, and by the time Abby Nicholas and Joni Nagy teamed up for a big stuff block, Northern led 19-11 and cruised to a 2-0 lead.

Things got even better for Northern, and worse for the Griffins in the final set. MSU-N led 11-0 on the strength of 6-0 serving run and four aces by Williams. In all, MSU-N led by as much as 16 points in the set and hit .321 as the Skylight offense was relentless against a much-taller Westminster front line.

“As a team, we played really well in all phases,” Huebsch said. “I thought we served really tough, we hit our spots, and our serve-receive was outstanding. We were able to get in system consistently, and because of that, Westminster could never get going offensively.

“I thought our net play was very good,” he continued “And our defense did their job all day. Westminster is very talented up front, but because of how well we played defensively, I think we frustrated them today. They could never really get on any point runs, and that speaks to how well we played defensively.”

The Skylights held the Griffins to .002 hitting and just 24 kills. Star hitter Alexis Aalona was limited to just five kills, while 6-2 middle blocker Myra Ramirez was held to just seven kills and no solo blocks. Holly Cartwright led the way with 15 digs, and Williams had 10 as did Nicholas. Offensively, Nicholas added 10 kills to Williams’ 12, while Williams also served up five aces. Erin Jensen and Dayna Jensen combined for 11 more kills, and Nagy had 31 assists, seven digs and a block.

“We just played really, really good volleyball today,” Huebsch said. “And we accomplished what we set out to do, which was to improve and to defend our home court. It was just a really well-played match by these kids today.”

The Skylights did indeed remain unbeaten at home, and unbeaten in conference play. But Williams insists her team won’t get complacent, even with a dominant performance against the Griffins on Saturday afternoon.

“We are still undefeated and that feels good,” the senior from Helena noted. “But we also know that the more we win, the more other teams are going to want to beat us. So we have to stay focused and keep working hard in practice. We are happy to be winning, but we know we still need to keep getting better too.”

Northern heads back on the road this week, facing Montana Tech Friday night in Butte and Carroll College Saturday night in Helena.

Skylights are 5-0 in the Frontier, 13-4 overall; Next up: At Tech Friday

Skylights def. Westminster

25-20, 25-13, 25-8

WM – Kills 24 (Mayra Ramirez 7, Alexis Aalona 5), Assists 24 (Emily Atkinson 10), Aces 0, Digs 52 (Kyndall Kordakis 15, Aalona 11), Blocks 2 (Kenzie Mitchell 1).

MSU-N – Kills 38 (Kelsey Williams 12, Abby Nicholas 10, Erin Jensen 6), Assists 35 (Joni Nagy 31), Aces 5 (Williams 5), Digs 53 (Holly Cartwright 14, Williams 10, Nicholas 10), Blocks 5 (Nagy 1, Williams 1).