Warriors block Northern's home debut

It's homecoming weekend at Montana State University-Northern. But, it is also a true homecoming for the Montana State University-Northern volleyball team, which spent the first four weeks of the new season on the road.

And, inside the Armory Gymnasium Thursday night, the atmosphere was festive and raucous for the Skylights' home opener. However, the Lewis-Clark State Warriors decided to spoil the party.

In the first Frontier Conference match of 2015, the Warriors reeled off three straight sets to take down the Skylights 3-1. LCSC, which is picked to win the conference this season, beat the Skylights by scores of 23-25, 25-21, 25-15 and 25-20.

"It was a really good match," said MSU-N head coach Bill Huebsch. "And I'm proud of our team. They battled. They fought hard, and they did a great job of fighting back in the second and fourth sets. I think tonight, we showed what we're capable of. But we have to do a much better job of matching effort with our ability and our intensity going forward."

Early on, the Skylights were intense. Excited to play in the front of their home fans for the first time, Northern countered a 6-0 LCSC run with a 7-0 run of its own, and the Skylights went from trailing 16-12 to leading 19-16 in the first set. The flurry included back-to-back kills by Cassie Krueger and two aces by Jessica Wilcox.

From there, the opening set was up for grabs, and it would be the Skylights who would reach up and grab it. Knotted at 21-21, Erin Jensen bombed a kill from the middle, giving the Skylights the lead back. The Warriors tied the set at 23-23, but Northern again stepped up, forcing the Warriors into two straight hitting errors that finished the set and gave MSU-N a 1-0 lead.

The Skylights mounted a similar comeback in the second set. The Warriors, behind the hard hitting of Kennadie Clute, and superb serving, raced out to a 12-5 lead. But a block and two straight kills by sophomore Cydney Auzenne brought MSU-N right back, tying the set at 16-16. From there, the set was for the taking again, only it was the Warriors who would find a way to finish it off. Krueger kept things close with two kills late, but trailing 22-20, the Skylights watched LCSC win three of the last four points and even the match at 1-1.

"We played with a lot of emotion tonight, they were really fired up to play on our home floor," Huebsch said. "And I thought in that first set, we showed a lot of toughness. We really battled and found a way to finish it. But I don't think that toughness carried over to the second set. We still battled, but when we needed to be consistent most, we kind of gave away too many free points, and made too many unforced errors.

"LC is a great team," he added. "I thought they amped up their serve in the second set. But I also felt like we made it a little easy on them. Our serve-receive broke down and we weren't able to run our offense the way we wanted."

Despite losing a close second set, the Skylights were right there with the Warriors. However, LCSC took an 8-7 lead in the third set and never trailed in that set again.

In the do-or-die fourth set, things changed dramatically though. The Skylights came out on fire, and thanks to two kills by Krueger and a rocket by Jensen, Northern had a commanding 9-3 lead. But the Skylights weren't able to hold on. The Warriors tied things at 13-13 and took the lead a point later. Northern briefly regained the lead at 16-15, but trailing 21-20, a hitting error by the Skylights meant that's as close as they would get.

"I thought we battled hard again in the fourth set," Huebsch said. "But we had too many unforced errors at really inopportune times. We had chances, but we just made too many errors. When you play good teams, you can't afford to give away free points and have that many unforced errors, and we were guilty of that at times tonight."

Indeed, even with the win in the first set, the Skylights hit just .134 for the match and had 37 kills. Krueger led with 13 kills, while Jensen and Korrie Stephenson each tallied seven. Emily Russell had 32 assists and 13 digs defensively, but Northern struggled at times to defend the taller LC attack, which totaled 66 kills and hit .252. LCSC had four players reach double figures, with Clute tallying a match-high 15 kills. Northern also struggled with LCSC's block and tall presence at the net during critical moments, and defensively, LCSC was very tough, with 61 digs.

But even though the Skylights couldn't keep the momentum they built in the first set, they showed glimpses of being a top-notch team capable of competing with anyone in the Frontier Conference, and they'll get another chance to prove that Saturday night when they host No. 6 Rocky Mountain College.

"I'm proud of how we fought," Huebsch said. "I thought we played really well at times. I thought our energy and emotion was great. We just need to be more consistent, and that's something we'll continue to work on."

Saturday night's match between Northern (0-1, 8-9) and RMC (1-0, 11-4) will start at 7 p.m. at the Armory Gymnasium. The Skylights are also home next weekend, hosting Montana Tech and Carroll College.

Skylights are 0-1 in Frontier, 8-9 overall; Next up: vs RMC Saturday

LC State def. MSU-Northern

23-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-20

LCSC – Kills 66 (Kennadie Clute 15, JaLisa Jose 14, Treneisha Doyle 13, Stephanie Ovitz 12), Assists 45 (Amber Hellestad 28), Aces 5 (3 with 2 each), Digs 61 (Doyle 20, Russia Robinson 19), Blocks 6 (5 with 1 each).

MSU-N – Kills 37 (Cassie Krueger 13, Erin Jensen 7, Korrie Stephenson 7), Assists 41 (Emily Russell 32), Aces 4 (Jessica Wilcox 2), Digs 45 (Russell 13), Blocks 6 (Stephenson 1, Jensen 1, Krueger 1).