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Northern spikers host Montana Tech as start of a big home stand
Montana State University-Northern's Alana Graves makes a pass during the Skylight's home opener back in January. Northern returns to the Armory Gymnasium tonight when the Skylights host the Montana Tech Orediggers. The Frontier Conference announced last week that there will be no fans at any league sporting events for the remainder of the school year.
Halfway there. For a long time, no one knew of there would even be a Frontier Conference volleyball season, but now, the Montana State University-Northern Skylights, and the rest of the league are halfway done with the postponed 2020 season, which was moved to the spring.
And for the Skylights, this final stretch of the season will be fun as Northern plays six of its last eight matches inside the Armory Gymnasium. That home stand starts tonight when the Skylights host Montana Tech for a pair of league matches.
For the Skylights (1-11) the home matches will be a chance for Northern to make some big strides in the second half of the season. MSU-N won its opening match of the new season back in January, but has gone 0-11 since, including two really closes losses at Montana Western last weekend in Dillon.
Now, Northern hopes to start to turn things around, as the Skylights aim to capitalize on a strong offensive attack last week, led by Rylee Burmester, Elissa Lind and Alana Graves. Northern had two of its best hitting matches of the season in Dillon, so the Skylights hope to combine that, with some better blocking at the net, and a strong serve-receive game.
Gaining momentum in the Frontier is always tough, however, and the Orediggers (4-8) will have something to say about that. Tech swept Northern last month in Butte and the Diggers have some strong performers up front in Karina Mickelson and Maureen Jessop, who have combined for over 300 kills this season. Add to that a great all-around effort from defensive specialist Hannah Oggerino, and Tech will be yet another tough opponent for the Skylights.
But while the Diggers will present tough challenges to the Skylights, Northern has remained upbeat throughout the season. The Skylights have showed flashes of a team on the rise, and, it just feels like they're ready to break through, and with so many home matches upcoming, that could happen any time.
Northern starts a big home stand with tonight's match against Tech, which starts at 7 in the Armory. The Skylights and Orediggers meet for a rematch Saturday at 1 p.m. Northern is also home to host Carroll College next weekend.
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