Skylights seek redemption on the road

Losing streaks are meant to be broken. And the Montana State University-Northern volleyball team is ready to shatter the one the Skylights are on. And they don't want to wait any longer.

Northern (0-4, 4-13) has lost six straight matches, including its first four in Frontier Conference play. But the Skylights will try and end that streak tonight when they take on the Westminster Griffins in Salt Lake City. MSU-N remains on the road to face UM-Western Saturday in Dillon.

The Skylights are coming off back-to-back losses at home last weekend, one coming at the hands of top-ranked Rocky Mountain College, and the other, a four-set defeat to Carroll College. But in that home weekend, MSU-N showed some major signs of improvement, and Northern head coach Bill Huebsch is looking for his team to build on that.

"We battled, we played really hard and that's what we ask these kids to do," Huebsch said of the Carroll match. "We showed some consistency. We showed that we can compete at the level we want to. Now we just have to show it more often."

Consistency is the key for a Skylight team that has undeniable talent. Northern has shown flashes of a team that can still compete at the top of the Frontier, despite the heavy losses it suffered to graduation last spring. But young and inexperienced mistakes have hurt the Skylights at the wrong times so far this season, and those are the types of things Huebsch wants to see improve.

"We just need to get better, we need to keep growing," Huebsch said. "If we continue to improve and do the things we saw in the Carroll match, but do them more consistently, I think we're going to be just fine come November."

And getting better is the goal. Junior Dayna Jensen leads the Skylights in kills with 176, while sister Erin is not far behind her. As expected, sophomore libero Sydney Stolearcius is tops in digs with 237, while Jaden Lynch and Janelle Hoff are still splitting time at setter. Red-shirt freshman Carlie Haefner has shown signs of things to come, leading MSU-N with 33 blocks while junior transfer Jessica Wilcox had a breakout performance against Carroll, totaling six blocks. Wilcox also leads the Skylights with 18 service aces.

While MSU-N has some players making plays, Huebsch still needs to see his team continue to grow, and that will happen with more experience. And one area MSU-N needs to grow is on offense. The Skylights, despite talented hitters like Dayna and Erin Jensen, Cydney Auzenne and Wilcox, are last in the Frontier in hitting percentage and seventh in total kills. Those are two categories the Skylights led the league in wire-to-wire a season ago. But like Huebsch said before, his team is young, and the areas of needed improvement are certainly fixable.

Northern also would like to start building some positive momentum as the calender turns to October, and that starts with this weekend's road trip.

Ironically, it was Westminster, which snapped a 19-match winning streak by the Skylights last fall in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City has always been a tough place for the Skylights to play, but like Northern, the Griffins (1-2, 7-9) are a young team still learning, so tonight's match could be a tight one.

The Griffins do have one of the most explosive hitters in the Frontier in 6-0 Alexis Aalona, who has 181 kills this season. However, the Griffins also start four freshman, including at the key positions of setter and libero so, while talented, they are one of the youngest teams in the league by far.

Northern is hoping to get its first win in Frontier play tonight, but if the Skylights can't get past the Griffins, they'll try again Saturday afternoon in Dillon. And in that match, something will have to give.

Western (0-3, 4-8) has been struggling to bring its volleyball program up for years now, and the Bulldogs have averaged just two wins per season in conference play over the last six. The Skylights haven't lost to Western under Huebsch, and they don't plan to this weekend either. However, the Bulldogs do have some bite to them this season, and things are never easy in Dillon either.

Senior outside hitter Emily Erickson is a powerful player who can really affect the flow of a match with her leaping ability and her penchant for putting away balls. Fellow outside hitter Breanne Kelly is another workhorse on offense, while the Bulldogs have one of the top setters in the league in senior Paige Lattimer, who has 416 assists so far. With that trio, Western has a potent attack, but like Northern, the Bulldogs are not an overly tall team, and they don't present as big a presence at the net as teams like Rocky and Carroll do.

Still, Saturday's match in Dillon will be a tough one for the Skylights, who had to go to five sets to best the Bulldogs there last year. And as always, the entire road trip will be a tough one for a Northern team with loads of potential, but one that is already off to a tough start this season.

Tonight's match between Northern and Westminster starts at 7 in Salt Lake City. Saturday's match in Dillon gets underway at 2 p.m. The Skylights return home to face rival UGF next Saturday night.