Skylights suffer road sweeps at Carroll, Tech

The first two-match road trip of Frontier Conference play did not go well for the Montana State University-Northern volleyball team. Over the weekend, the Skylights were swept by both Carroll College and Montana Tech.

Friday night in Helena, Northern fell to the Fighting Saints by scores of 25-18, 24-23 and 25-19.

The Skylights were led by Alana Graves, who tallied eight kills with a hitting percentage of .217. Elissa Lind and Alyssa Pretty Weasel added seven kills. Shania Neubauer led the team in digs with 19. Emily Feller led the team in assists with 33. MSU-Northern had a hitting percentage of .107 on the day, while Carroll hit .225. The Skylights had 28 assists, and the Saints had 39. Northern also had 68 digs to Carroll 73.

The Fighting Saints were led by Taelyr Krantz, who had 13 kills hitting a percentage of .367. Kylie Kackman led the team with 17 assists in the match. Julia Carr led the team with 28 digs.

Northern then traveled to Butte Saturday night, where the Skylights were swept by the Orediggers by scores of 25-16, 25-15 and 25-19.

The Skylights were led by Rylee Burmester, who tallied 10 kills and 12 digs. Elissa Lind and Alana Graves each added four kills. Shania Neubauer led the team in digs with 13. Emily Feller led the team in assists with 26. MSU-Northern had a hitting percentage of .085 on the day, while Montana Tech hit .239. The Skylights had 26 assists, and the Orediggers had 38. Northern also had 50 digs to Montana Tech's 59.

The Orediggers were led by Maureen Jessop and Karina Mickelson, who had 14 kills. McKenna Kaelber led the team with 33 assists in the match. Sarah Hopcroft led the team with 15 digs.

The two losses dropped Northern to 1-4 in the Frontier and 11-11 overall. The Frontier has reached the annual bye week, so the Skylights won’t play again until an Oct. 22 trip to Rocky Mountain College.

Carroll def. MSU-Northern

25-18, 25-23, 25-19

MSU-N - Kills 38 (Alana Graves 8), Assists 38 (Emily Feller 33), Aces 2 (Shanie Neubauer 1, Katie Murdock 1), Digs 68 (Neubauer 19), Blocks 6 (Marlee Bender 5).

CC - Kills 41 (Taelyr Krantz 13), Assists 39 (Kylie Kackman 17), Aces 3 (3 with one each), Digs 73 (Julia Carr 28), Blocks 9.

Montana Tech def. MSU-Northern

25-16, 25-15, 25-19

MSU-N - Kills 29 (Rylee Burmester 10), Assists 26 (Emily Feller 26), Aces 0, Digs 50 (Shania Neubauer 13, Burmester 12), Blocks 2.

Tech - Kills 43 (Maureen Jessop 14), Assists 38 (McKenna Kaebler 33), Aces 6 (Jessop 2), Digs 59 (Sarah Hopcroft 15), Blocks 4.