Skylights picked sixth in Frontier Preseason Poll

The Montana State University-Northern Skylights got back to work this week, opening fall camp ahead of their Aug. 26 season debut in Butte. While on Thursday, Northern was picked to finish sixth by the league’s coaches.

The Frontier Conference released its Preseason Coaches Poll Thursday afternoon, with the Skylights receiving 10 points, and coming in sixth place. Sixth is where Northern finished in the league standings a year ago, going 2-10 in league play and 10-19 overall.

However, veteran head coach Bill Huebsch had a very new-look squad a season ago, and while he again has plenty of new faces, as Northern’s recruiting class this spring swelled to nine new players, the Skylights have no intentions of finishing in sixth place again.

Northern returns a talented group of now experienced players who should blend nicely with the newcomers, and though they will start out as a team flying under the radar, the Skylights expect to be very competitive in the Frontier this season.

Of course, being competitive in the Frontier is never easy. It’s arguably one of the deepest conferences in all of NAIA volleyball, and it should be again this season.

At the top of the preseason poll is Rocky Mountain College, the two-time defending Frontier champion. The Battlin’ Bears graduated some star players, but they still got the nod from the coaches to be the top team in the league yet again, as they received five of the seven first-place votes in the poll.

Following RMC is Carroll College, which was picked second, and received one first-place vote. The Fighting Saints finished just one point ahead of Frontier stalwart Lewis-Clark State, which garnered 28 points and the other first-place vote.

Rounding out the poll were UGF and Montana Tech, which each had 19 points to tie for fourth, while Northern was sixth and UM-Western was seventh with seven points.

Meanwhile, Huebsch and the Skylights will continue getting ready for their season-opener, which comes in less than two weeks with the Big Sky Challenge in Butte. There, Northern will play four matches against Cascade Conference opponents. The Skylights open league play Sept. 16 at home against RMC.

As part of its fall camp, Northern will hold its Maroon/Gold Scrimmage Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Armory Gymnasium. Admission is a can of nonperishable food that will be donated to the Havre Food Bank.

Frontier Conference Preseason Volleyball Poll

Rocky Mountain (5) 35 points

Carroll College (1) 29 points

Lewis-Clark State (1) 28 points

Montana Tech 19 points

University of Great Falls 19 points

MSU-Northern 10 points

Montana Western 7 points