New season: MSU-N spikers start today

The Montana State University-Northern volleyball team has had unparalleled success over the last two seasons, including winning a Frontier Conference regular season championship, and reaching the Frontier tournament finale two years running.

Today in Spokane though, Northern will put all that success in its rearview mirror, and instead focus on 2014 and the future. MSU-N opens its season today as the Skylights play the first of five matches this weekend at the Sports Travel Northwest Invitational. The tournament pits mostly Cascade Conference schools against Frontier schools, and sixth-year head coach Bill Huebsch said it's a perfect place for his new-look Skylights to begin.

"Being that we are a young team, and not very experienced, this is a good place to start," Huebsch said. "We will see some strong teams, but we will have a chance to be competitive against all of them. Our schedule gets a lot more difficult as the weeks go on, so this is a good way for us to start the season."

The schedule will indeed get more difficult as MSU-N plays six nationally ranked teams over the next two weeks. But the Skylights will see a top NAIA opponent in Spokane, too. After matches against Evergreen State and Walla Walla University today, Northern will turn its attention to Friday when the Skylights face Northwest University at noon and Eastern Oregon University at 4 p.m. The matchup against the Mounties will pit two conference champions from a year ago against each other, while EOU comes into this season ranked No. 23 in the NAIA Preseason Coaches Poll.

Northern wraps up the tournament with a matchup against Simpson College of California Saturday, and while Huebsch expects every team to be tough in Spokane, he says the match against EOU Friday will be telling.

"Eastern Oregon is a quality program," Huebsch said. "We lost to them in four or five sets last year, and it was a really good match. I think all the matches we play out there will be tough because it's the first weekend of the season and we're a pretty new team. But Eastern Oregon will certainly be the best team we face out there."

The Skylights are a new team. They graduated five seniors and four Frontier All-Conference performers from last year's 26-6 squad, a squad that went 15-1 in Frontier play and was nationally-ranked for six weeks. Among the key losses was Frontier MVP Abby Nicholas, but overall, all five departed seniors leave Northern with plenty of questions marks heading into this weekend.

Northern will be led, especially early on, by its three returning starters. Junior Dayna Jensen (5-8, OH) was a full-time starter last year, racking up 239 kills and 29 service aces. Also back is Jensen's sister, Erin (5-8, OH), who will be moving around from middle to outside this season. As a freshman, she had 138 kills and 15 solo blocks, which was second-best on the Skylight team last season. Fellow sophomore Sydney Stolearcius (5-5, DS/L) is also back after making her way into the lineup as a true freshman last season. From there, however, MSU-N's lineup will be brand new.

Red-shirt freshman Cydney Auzenne (5-10, OH) steps into the lineup this season and her talent and power is undeniable. Meanwhile, at the setter spot, a battle is going on between sophomore Janelle Hoff (5-10) and junior college transfer Jaden Lynch (5-11). Huebsch said the plan for now is to give both players plenty of time in matches and see how things shake out. Junior transfer Jessica Wilcox (6-0) and true freshman Taylor Woolman (6-1) will also figure to have an immediate, and need impact on the Skylight rotation.

"This roster has a lot of talent, it's untested, but still talented," Huebsch said. "There are a lot of very good volleyball players on this team, and that's become very apparent through this first two weeks of practice. We're doing a lot of things really well right now for this early in the season. And the big thing is, this team already has very good chemistry. They are getting along on the court and off it, and that's so important."

But as talented as the Skylights appear to be, Huebsch said there will be plenty of growing pains along the way. That's to be expected with so much roster turnover. But that's exactly what the preconference matches are for, and Huebsch is excited to see his team in action this weekend in Spokane.

"With so many new players, I can't really put a finger on how it's going to go," Huebsch said. "I think we have a chance to surprise some people, I think we have a chance to become a very good team. But there's a lot of questions still to be answered and that's what this first three weeks is all about. We'll make some mistakes, but we will also focus on improving with every match, every practice and every contact. That's the goal right now, to just keep improving and keep coming together as a team, and that's why I feel like this tournament is the perfect place for us to start our season. So I'm really looking forward to it."

The Skylights face Evergreen State in the first match of the 2014 Sports Travel Northwest Invitational. Tonight at 6, MSU-N is back on the court to tangle with Walla Walla. Friday, MSU-N plays Northwest University at noon and Eastern Oregon at 4 p.m., and Saturday the Skylights will take on Simpson University at 12 p.m. All of the season-opening action takes place at the HUB Sports Center in Spokane.