Northern spikers fall at Frontier powers

Life on the road in Frontier Conference volleyball is never a picnic. But this weekend, it was especially tough for the young Montana State University-Northern Skylights.

Northern traveled to Billings Friday night to face the Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears, the No. 1 team in all of the NAIA. And for an encore, the Skylights had to face the Carroll College Fighting Saints Saturday night in Helena.

Northern was swept in both matches, dropping its conference record to 1-10. Overall, the Skylights are 5-19 heading into their final home stand this Friday-Saturday.

“I wasn’t terribly disappointed with how we played at times,” MSU-N head coach Bill Huebsch said. “I thought we did some good things in both matches. But hitting errors and not being able to terminate the ball when we had opportunities really hurt us. That has haunted us all season long, and it did again this weekend.”

In Billings Friday night, the Skylights dropped the match to the Bears by scores of 25-14, 25-12 and 25-17. Northern’s hitting percentage was under .200 while RMC had 45 kills on 40 assists. The Bears, who have only lost one set in conference play, got 13 kills from star middle hitter Yang Yang, and another 11 from Anna De-Wald, while the Skylights got five kills from Dayna Jensen, to go along with two blocks and an ace. Sarah Stringfellow added 14 digs, while Erin Jensen had four kills.

“It was third time we’ve played a No. 1 team in the country,” Huebsch said of the RMC match. “They (Bears) are a really good team; they have eight seniors and we have one. So at times, our inexperience showed.

“But again, I wasn’t disappointed with how we played them for the most part,” he continued. “But we had some opportunities and we just didn’t take advantage of them.”

In Helena Saturday night, Northern was swept by Carroll for the second time this season. The Saints won by scores of 25-19, 25-15 and 25-13. MSU-N played a strong first set and had chances to grab the lead against the Saints, but again, hitting errors proved costly.

“We played really tough in the first set,” Huebsch said. “I really liked our effort and how we played that game. But when it got close, we made some critical mistakes, and we couldn’t put the set away. After that, I thought our intensity level dropped, we didn’t hit well at all, and our block went away. We just didn’t play well after that first set.”

In the loss, Erin Jensen had a team-high 10 kills and a block. Dayna Jensen added eight kills and nine digs, while Jessica Wilcox had Northern’s other block. Carroll was paced by Kathleen Mulligan’s 11 kills and one block.

Now, with two tough road losses behind them, the Skylights will regroup and get ready for their final two home matches of the season. Northern faces Westminster Friday night and UM-Western Saturday.

“We just need to get better,” Huebsch said. “We still have an opportunity to put ourselves in a good position going into the conference tournament. We just need to play much better in these last two home matches.”

Rocky Mountain def. MSU-Northern

25-14, 25-12, 25-17

MSU-N – Kills 21 (D. Jensen 5, Erin Jensen 4), Assists 20 (Jaden Lynch 17), Aces 2 (D. Jensen 1, S. Stolearcius 1), Digs 49 (S. Stringfellow 14, J. Lynch 11), Blocks 5 (D. Jensen 2).

RMC – Kills 45 (Y. Yang 13, A. DeWald 11), Assists 40 (T. Bertsch 29), Aces 3 (Three with 1 each), Digs 71 (J. Donaldson 16), Blocks 6 (Y. Yang 2, B. Geck 2).

Carroll def. MSU-Northern

25-19, 25-15, 25-13

MSU-N – Kills 29 (E. Jensen 10, D. Jensen 8), Assists 29 (J. Lynch 18), Aces 2 (Lynch 1, S. Stringfellow 1), Digs 40 (D. Jensen 9), Blocks 2 (J. Wilcox 1, E. Jensen 1).

CC – Kills 42 (K. Mulligan 11), Assists 42 (J. Dorr 21, E. Burk 17), Aces 7 (Burk 2, R. Sweeney 2), Digs 46 (Sweeney 12), Blocks 9 (Mulligan 1, Prestwood 1).