Skylights fall at old rival Dickinson State

One match is all that stood between the Montana State University-Northern Skylights and the start of Frontier Conference volleyball play.

As it turned out, it was one really tough match.

Friday night, the Skylights trekked east to face an old rival in the form of the Dickinson State Blue Hawks. It was Northern’s final tune-up before the start of league play later this week, and while the Skylights fought hard, they ultimately fell in four sets. The Blue Hawks beat the Skylights by scores of 25-18, 25-15, 22-25 and 25-19 in Dickinson, North Dakota.

The Blue Hawks, now a member of the North Star Athletic Association, got off to a fast start, hitting .192 for the first two sets. The Skylights rebounded in the third set, staving off elimination with their best hitting percentage of the night.

However, in the decisive fourth set, DSU battled back, and ultimately put the Skylights away with a late run.

Hitting would be the key to match as DSU out-did Northern in total kills, 51-34. As has been the case all season, Northern served tough, with seven aces, but defensively, the Blue Hawks had nine blocks to Northern’s four, and had a 77-67 edge in digs.

Individually, Northern got 15 kills from Rylee Burmester, while Tammy Maddock had a great all-around match, tallying six kills, three aces and four blocks. Hailey Warren had 27 assists and 14 digs, while Katie Murdock had 18 digs.

Northern, which fell to 6-7 on the season, will stay on the road for one more week. And it’s a big week. The Skylights travel to Lewis-Clark State Thursday night to begin conference play, before wrapping up a month-long road trip at Montana Tech Saturday. Northern then plays its first home match since Aug. 15 when the Skylights the University of Providence on Sept. 25 in the Armory Gymnasium.