Skylights perfect in Dickinson

Four matches is all that stood between the Montana State University-Northern volleyball team and their home debut. And the Skylights’ final preseason road trip didn’t disappoint.

This past weekend, Northern played four times at the North Star Conference Challenge in Dickinson, North Dakota, and they found plenty of success.

On Friday, MSU-N opened the tournament with a 3-1 win over Valley City State. The Skylights beat the Vikings by scores of 22-26, 25-21, 25-22 and 25-21 in a tightly-contested match. Rylee Burmester tallied 15 kills, 12 digs and two aces, while Emily Feller had 35 assists and a pair of aces. Shania Neubauer also had 15 gigs and four aces.

Northern also took care of host DSU Friday by scores of 25-17, 25-18 and 25-10. In the sweep, Alyssa Pretty Weasel had a team-high 13 kills, while Alana Graves had three blocks on defense for the Skylights.

The Skylights had rematches with the Vikings and Blue Hawks Saturday.

Against Valley City, Northern won a thriller by scores of 25-20, 23-25, 26-24, 21-25 and 15-9. It was an exciting five-setter in which Northern got 19 kills from Burmester and another 10 by Alana Graves. Feller added 47 assists and Abigail Ellison had 20 digs.

Northern then finished the trip to Dickinson with another sweep of the Blue Hawks. On Saturday, the Skylights won by scores of 25-18, 25-18 and 25-18 to go 4-0 on the trip. Burmester had 12 kills while Ellison tallied seven. Elissa Lind also had 11 digs on defense for the Skylights.

Now at 8-5 this season, and having won six straight matches, the Skylights finally come home to host the Frontier Conference Preview Tournament. Northern will play Montana Western and Montana Tech Friday, the take on Carroll College and Providence Saturday inside the Armory Gymnasium.