Bears battle past Skylights

On an emotional night inside the Armory Gymnasium, on homecoming, in more ways than one, the Montana State University-Northern Skylights played some inspired volleyball. Unfortunately, they were playing that volleyball against the No. 6 team in the NAIA, and against the two-time defending Frontier Conference champions.

Saturday night at the Armory wasn’t just a big homecoming match against Rocky Mountain College, but it was also the emotional and inspiring return of Skylight Taylor Woolman to the Armory. Woolman was with her teammates for the first time this season, and she received a heartfelt standing ovation from a large Northern contingent, as well as the Battlin’ Bears.

But at the end of the night, despite the Skylights playing an incredible third set, the Bears were just too tall and too strong for Northern to overcome, as RMC swept the Skylights by scores of 25-17, 25-19 and 32-30.

“I told the girls after the match, they had nothing to be ashamed of,” said MSU-N head coach Bill Huebsch. “They fought hard, they gave everything they had and they went toe to toe with the No. 6 team in the country. As a coach, that’s all you can ask for.”

Toe-to-toe doesn’t even describe how great and tough the Skylights played the Bears in the third set. Down 2-0 in the match, Northern came out swinging, and with three Jessica Wilcox kills, the Skylights were up 10-4. Wilcox and Korrie Stephenson continued to pound the ball at the lengthy RMC defense, and the Skylights led 19-13 late in the set.

Rocky however, made a run, as expected, and actually led 23-22 on an Aleah Billis kill But Wilcox assisted on a block to give MSU-N a set point. From there, the set got crazy. Northern had another set point after a Stephenson kill, then had to stave off a match point at 26-25, which the Skylights did on another bomb by Stephenson. A Cassie Krueger kill would give the Skylights the edge at 28-27, but RMC was up to that challenge too, and the set went on.

Facing another match point at 29-28, Erin Jensen came through the middle to pound a kill to save the Skylights yet again, and a Krueger kill followed, giving Northern the lead back at 30-29. But that’s as close as the Skylights would get to forcing a fourth set. Consecutive kills by Sydney Matheny, Kylie Nielsen and Stiffarm ended things and gave the Bears a tough, three-set win.

“It was a great third set,” Huebsch said. “And it showed that we got better as the match went on. We had chances, we had opportunities, but you have to give Rocky a lot of credit. They are tall, they are a great blocking team and that influenced our pace at the net when we had some of those opportunities at the end of that set. Rocky is a very good team and they played great.”

The Skylights did get better as the match went on. Rocky was dominant in the first set, ripping off a 7-1 run early and another 7-0 run midway through. But after trailing 7-3 early in the second set, the Skylights came on strong.

On a couple of unforced errors by RMC, Northern took the lead in the second set at 10-9, and again at 15-14 in a solo block by Stephenson. After that flurry though, RMC asserted itself again, in particular, Nielsen, who had five kills in the final portion of the second set, helping the Bears take a 2-0 lead.

Still, Huebsch saw plenty of bright spots after a slow start to the match.

“There were plenty of bright spots, plenty of positives,” Huebsch said. “I thought we played really well from the middle of the second set on. And if these girls will battle like this all season, good things are going to happen.”

In the loss, which dropped Northern to 0-2 in conference play, the Skylights had 40 kills, with Stephenson and Krueger each totaling 11. Wilcox added nine kills and an ace, while Stephenson recorded one block. MSU-N spilt setters, with Emily Russell totaling 19 assists and freshman Samantha Martinez tallying 14, while Jacy Vining had 21 digs and Wilcox had 12. RMC’s block was also a big factor. The Bears had 13 blocks with Billis having five. Stiffarm led the RMC offense with 15 kills.

And while the loss was a tough one, especially the third set, Huebsch said he liked plenty of what he saw from his team over the first two home matches, and the Skylights (8-10) will get to stay at home as they host Montana Tech this Friday night and Carroll College Saturday afternoon.

“I have no complaints,” Huebsch said. “The girls gave everything they had tonight against a Top 10 team. And they work extremely hard and they’ll keep getting better and better as the season goes on. So I’m not disappointed at all. I’m proud of this team.”

Skylights are 0-2 in Frontier, 8-10 overall; Next up: vs Tech on Friday

Rocky Mountain def. MSU-Northern

25-17, 25-19, 32-20

RMC – Kills 50 (Mariah Stiffarm 15), Assists 48 (Tori Bertsch 41), Aces 2 (Kylie Nielsen 1, Brooke Myers 1), Digs 75 (Ahlea Billis 20), Blocks 13 (Billis 5).

MSU-N – Kills 40 (Cassie Krueger 11, Korrie Stephenson 11), Assists 38 (Emily Russell 19, Samantha Martinez 14), Aces 1 (Jessica Wilcox 1), Digs 58 (Jacy Vining 21), Blocks 4 (Stephenson 1).