Northern spikers play LC State tough, still fall on the road

The Montana State University-Northern Skylights haven’t won a set in Frontier Conference play this season. But, the Skylights came agonizingly close to doing that more than once Saturday afternoon.

Northern was on a two-match road swing this past week, and Saturday afternoon at Lewis-Clark State, the Skylights played easily their best match of the season. In a three-set loss to the Warriors, Northern battled to scores of 28-26, 25-21 and 32-30. The match was intense from start to finish, and in all three sets, the Skylights had leads, and set points in two of three.

However, Northern is a young team this season, and the Skylights couldn’t quite get over the hump against the Warriors. In the loss, Northern had a season-high 34 kills and hot .109 for the match. Emily Gutierrez led the way for the Skylights with 15 kills, while Shay Waldbillig had 14 assists. Northern also had 50 digs, with Hannah Amtmann totaling 17, and Jessica Curl tallied two of MSU-N’s nine blocks.

The road trip started last Thursday with the Skylights falling in three sets at Montana Tech. The Skylights also played better in that match, losing to the Orediggers 25-18, 25-17 and 25-19.

Offensively, the Skylights were paced by a combined 14 kills from Curl and Gutierrez, Hailey Warren totaled nine assists and Shania Neubauer served an ace to go with 12 digs.

The two losses dropped MSU-N to 0-8 in the Frontier and 1-19 overall. MSU-N finally returns home this Wednesday when the Skylights take on the University of Providence. Northern plays three of its final four matches in the Armory Gymnasium.

Montana Tech def. MSU-Northern

25-18, 25-17, 25-19

MSU-N - (kills-aces-blocks) Hailey Warren 0-0-0; Hannah Amtmann 0-0-0; Katia Michelotti 3-0-3; Ashley Ponce 0-0-0; Shania Neubauer 0-1-0; Emily Gutierrez 7-0-1; Breanna Brickey 0-0-0; Jessica Curl 7-0-2; Jordan O'Connor 3-0-2; Shay Waldbillig 0-0-0; Abigail Ellison 3-0-0; Mckaylie Tanner 0-0-1. Totals 23-1-5.0.

MT - (kills-aces-blocks) Hannah Liss 0-4-0; Courtney Bad Bear 0-0-0; Sabrina Hopcroft 0-3-0; Nikayla Larson 0-0-0; Heather Thompson 9-0-6; Genesis Keith 0-0-4; Portia Cortner 0-0-1; Karina Mickelson 14-1-4; Sydney Parks 3-0-3; Masha Korol 6-0-2; Kacee James 3-0-1. Totals 35-8-11.0.

LC State def. MSU-Northern

28-26, 25-21, 32-30

MSU-N - (kills-aces-blocks) Mckaylie Tanner 2-0-2; Katia Michelotti 4-0-4; Abigail Ellison 5-0-0; Ashley Ponce 0-0-0; Shay Waldbillig 1-1-0; Shania Neubauer 0-0-0; Hannah Amtmann 0-0-0; Jordan O'Connor 4-1-3; Jessica Curl 4-0-6; Emily Gutierrez 14-1-1. Totals 34-3-9.0.

LCSC - (kills-aces-blocks) Rachel Gregg 10-0-1; Alexa Van Vleet 3-0-1; Jordan Phelan 0-3-0; Aubrey King 7-0-1; Hayley Alvarez 8-1-3; Hannah Pond 0-0-0; Josilyn Remick 0-0-0; Brooke Kaawa 12-0-0; Olivia Jarvis 1-0-3; Madeleine Taylor 0-2-0; Sydney Lawrence 1-0-1; Gionni Brown 0-1-0. Totals 42-7-6.0.