Skylights return to the road

The Montana State University-Northern volleyball team has suffered three straight Frontier Conference losses in the Armory Gymnasium. Thursday night, the Skylights will try their luck on the road.

Northern wraps up the first half of conference play with a road trip to UM-Western Thursday night, and the Skylights will be looking to break out of a recent slump. In a three-match home stand, Northern (2-4, 8-12) lost to Carroll College in four sets and was swept by both Montana Tech and Lewis-Clark State over the weekend.

However, the road might just be what the Skylights are looking for. They won their last road match, a victory at the University of Providence, and, one of their two Frontier wins is against UM-Western. Last month, the Skylights beat the Bulldogs in a five-set thriller in Havre.

Still, Northern will have to be sharp if it wants to sweep the season series against Western (1-4, 9-9). MSU-N has struggled to break the .100 mark in hitting the last three matches, and the Skylights have been out-hit by the opposing offense in each of those outings as well.

Western, on the other hand, has plenty of talent, as the Skylights saw first-hand last month. But, the Bulldogs are also struggling offensively, as they are last in the Frontier in hitting and kills per set. The Bulldogs are also sixth in blocking, so the MSU-N offense, led by Cassie Krueger and Timi Severson, will hope to get on track against the UM-W defense.

After Thursday's match, Northern will have a long break before returning to conference play Oct. 20 with a home match against Rocky Mountain College. The match between the Skylights and Western starts at 7 p.m. Thursday night in Dillon.