Frontier volleyball will be entertaining

It's been a long journey to get here, but now is finally the time for volleyball teams across the Frontier Conference to get down to business.

Starting this week, it's conference play from here on out, and it will be an interesting season in the Frontier to say the least.

With non-conference play wrapped up now, all but one team in the Frontier finished the last month's worth of matches at .500 our better, and that one team, Montana State University-Northern, is just one game below .500 after playing a very tough non-conference schedule.

The top team in the league heading into conference play is the University of Providence. The Argos have gotten off to promising starts in the past and have been a consistent squad in the league for years. But they haven't gotten over the hump and truly took a hold of the Frontier in recent years.

So could this be the year of the Argos? Well, they went 10-1 in non-conference play, and have a roster full of tall talented hitters, led by Kelsey Shaver, who already has 142 kills this season.

Montana Tech, which was picked to win the league this season, is off to a great start, too. Like the Argos, the Orediggers (12-2), have been a team on the rise for several seasons now, but this fall, Tech is determined to win a Frontier title. Tech returned a host of starters with Karina Michelson being the most dangerous. But, overall, Tech is an offensive juggernaut, and the Diggers have always been a defensive machine, so the Diggers seem to have it all.

Frontier stalwart Rocky Mountain College will be there at the end, too. New head coach Yang Yang has RMC sitting at 8-4 heading into league play, and while graduation hit the Bears hard last spring, and longtime head coach Lorrie Kelly retired, returning starts like Daniella Russell give the Bears plenty of firepower to contend for yet another Frontier crown.

After a couple of down years, Lewis-Clark State looks to be back among the Frontier title hopefuls, as well. The Warriors went 9-5 in non-league play, they have the toughest home-court advantage in the league, and they have the tallest roster in the conference, too, led by middle hitter Tori Edwards.

Don't count out Carroll College either. The Fighting Saints lost a lot to graduation, and they went just 5-5 in non-conference play. But head coach Mo Boyle always has her team poised for Frontier play, and like LCSC, Carroll also has good size and great athletes. The Saints also have NAIA All-American basketball player Hannah Dean playing with them this season, so there's no reason to think, Carroll won't be very tough in conference play.

The two teams that have finished last in the league the last several seasons can't be overlooked either.

Northern has new/old head coach Jerry Wagner, a lot of fresh talent, and as a result, the Skylights have already won five more matches than they did all of last season. And after going winless in the Frontier a year ago, Wagner has changed things dramatically, and the Frontier will no longer be able to see the Skylights as a sure-fire win on their schedule.

The same can be said for Montana Western. The Bulldogs have been at the bottom of the conference for a long time, but they went 6-5 in non-conference play, they have talent and size, they have experience and they won't be a pushover for the rest of the Frontier either.

In other words, with so many good teams at the top, with traditional powers staying strong, and with the rise of the Skylights and Bulldogs, this season the Frontier could be as tough and as competitive as it's been in a long, long time.

Stay tuned.