Northern spikers open Frontier play Saturday night

After a long two days inside the Armory Gymnasium, the Montana State University-Northern volleyball team will slow things down a bit.

Northern begins regular season Frontier Conference play Saturday night, when the Skylights host Rocky Mountain College at 6 p.m. The match is the first regular season match for both Northern and Rocky, though everybody in the league was just in the Armory last weekend for the first-ever Frontier Preseason Tournament, where the Skylights went an outstanding 2-2.

"(We played) very well. Extremely happy about absolutely everything," head coach Jerry Wagner said after the Skylights went 2-2 at home. "I'm absolutely 100 percent jacked up about being around this team."

Wagner should be jacked after Northern beat nationally ranked Montana Tech Friday and Carroll College Saturday afternoon to improve to 10-7 overall.

The Skylights are also excited about not just their record but also their individual play, as senior Rylee Burmester paces Northern in kills, hitting percentage and serving. Add that to the return of a healthy Abigail Allison, the continued strong play of Alana Graves, and the setting of Emily Feller and Northern's offense has really started to click. On the other side, Shania Neubauer anchors a veteran Northern defense, that has helped the Skylights come a long way since last spring.

However, Frontier Conference play is a whole other level, and while Northern is riding high after last weekend, the Skylights won't take for granted a Rocky Mountain squad which comes in to Saturday's match at just 8-10 but, led by libero Ayla Embry and a tall front line, the Battlin' Bears will still be very dangerous.

The match against RMC is also the first of a new-look Frontier schedule, one in which many teams will play just one match per week. After Northern plays Rocky, the Skylights play next Wednesday at Providence, but then return home for a Saturday night match against Western. From there, Northern will play just three times in four weeks, all of which will be on the road, so the Skylights would love to get league play started off on the right foot.

Saturday night's match between Northern and Rocky will begin at 6 p.m. inside the Armory Gymnasium. It's part of a big homecoming weekend at Northern as well. Northern then plays four of its next five on the road.