George Ferguson Column: It's going to be a special Armory weekend for MSU-N volleyball

It's been a rough season for a very young, inexperienced Montana State University-Northern volleyball team. The Skylights haven't won a single match in Frontier Conference play.

And yet the Skylights have a chance to bring a bright light to the end of the regular season. That's because Northern plays at home for their last two matches of the regular season, and there's nothing better than playing in the Armory Gymnasium.

This weekend will be especially special for the Skylights, too. They have the daunting task of taking on nationally ranked Rocky Mountain College tonight at 7 inside the Armory, but Northern will also honor their host families before the match.

Then Saturday, the Skylights will close the regular season with a 2 p.m. battle against the UM-Western Bulldogs. Before the match, MSU-N will honor seniors Jessica Curl and McKaylie Tanner.

So regardless of how tough a season it's been for Northern, these last two days in the Armory are going to be emotional and special.

For one, the host family program Northern has is a great tradition, and one that has truly helped countless numbers of student-athletes. It's a great program and one that gives so many student-athletes, including volleyball players, a chance to become more ingrained with not only college life, but community life while living, sometimes very far away from home,

Of course, any senior day is also emotional.

But it's always a special day when it happens inside the Armory Gymnasium. Whether it's volleyball, basketball or wrestling, I've been to a lot of senior nights in the Armory, and it always gives me goose bumps. It's always an intense, emotional and special time because Northern does such a great job of honoring its senior student athletes.

Saturday's volleyball senior day will be no different. Tanner, a setter for the Skylights, hails from Salt Lake City and came to Northern from the junior college ranks two years ago. While her time at Northern has been short, she will get to experience just what senior day is all about Saturday, and it will be a moment she'll never forget.

Curl is in a very unique position, too, because she'll have not one, but two senior-day experiences this year.

She came to Northern last year to play basketball for head coach Chris Mouat, but last spring, she also joined head coach Rose Obunaga's volleyball squad, and she's had an immediate impact. Curl is going to be honored Saturday as a senior volleyball player, and in February, she'll do it all over again as a Skylight basketball player.

And one thing is for sure, Curl knows how special playing inside the Armory Gymnasium is.

"I love playing in the Armory. I've never experienced anything like it anywhere else I've been," Curl said. "The fans are so amazing, and the energy for games is awesome, and as a player, it really lifts you up and motivates you. It's just so fun and exciting to play at home here."

Curl and the Skylights get to do that two more times this season.

Tonight, Northern hosts RMC (10-0, 25-3), a team that's been a holy terror in the Frontier Conference this year. The match won't be easy, as it pits a tall, experienced Battlin' Bears squad, a squad certainly headed to the NAIA national tournament, against a Northern team that starts a host of freshmen and sophomores, and has just two seniors.

Then Saturday, those seniors get one last match in the Armory as the Skylights host the Bulldogs. Western's only win in conference play came against Northern last month in Dillon, and now, the Bulldogs will have to try and beat the Skylights on their home floor, on senior day.

Because it's senior day, and because senior day in the Armory is so special and so unique, I would bet that the Skylights will play their best match of the year, and the Bulldogs are going to be in for a tough time on their trip to Havre. That's what senior day is all about at Northern.

No matter the results, this weekend is going to be a special one for Northern volleyball, and especially for Curl and Tanner. This weekend is their last chance to shine in the Armory, their last chance to soak up what it's like to be a student-athlete on the campus of MSU-Northern.

In other words, it's the last weekend at home for the MSU-N volleyball team, and no matter who the opponent is, no matter what the season has been like, for the Skylights, it doesn't get any more special than this.