Skylights return from bye to face Rocky Mountain College

At the halfway point of their conference season, the Montana State University-Northern Skylights are 1-4 in the Frontier Conference. They had a bye this past week to rest up, but their next opponent will be a tough outing as the Skylights head on the road to play Rocky Mountain College Friday. The Skylights lost to the Bears last month to start conference play and MSU-N head coach Jerry Wagner believes RMC has only improved since then.

"They're much higher than the first time," Wagner said. "I felt we came out flat for many reasons that I think we had more control over and I'm expecting a different effort this time."

The Skylights have not played a match since Oct. 9. With the past week off, the Skylights have mostly used the time off to recuperate and get themselves ready for the second half of their conference schedule.

"We used that time to get everybody back mentally, physically and emotionally ready to go through a time of the season when you want to be at your best," Wagner said. "We look forward to this part of the season and culminating in a great effort."

The Bears will be first up for the Skylights coming out of their bye week. The Bears have a 2-3 conference record and an overall record of 10-13. Wagner believes the RMC defense led by players such as Weiying Wu and Ayla Embry will be the toughest thing for the Skylights to overcome Friday night.

"At times they have a very good defense, both blocking and backcourt. You definitely have to get them out of system," Wagner said. "We're going to have to be expecting their very best and be able to come out on top of that."

The Bears also have several players on offense who can give the Skylights some trouble. In the previous meeting between MSU-N and RMC, Makenna Bushman led the Bears with 11 kills on the night. Morgan Allen also contributed on offense with 10 kills on a .214 hitting percentage.

In their previous meeting this season, the Bears won all three sets by scores of 28-26, 25-19 and 25-18 to defeat the Skylights. While he believes the Bears have improved since that last match, Wagner also believes the Skylights have improved since then.

"Our serving game is improving to where we're getting teams off balance as often as we need to," Wagner said. "We've been trying to up-tempo our offense a little bit and, at times when you can't do that, be a lot more aggressive against a well-placed blocking defense."

Wagner expects a tough battle Friday night against the Bears. He did not believe the Skylights came out with the energy needed to win the last time they played the Bears, so the Skylights need to come out ready to go if they are going to get revenge against the Bears.

"We didn't put our best foot forward that day when we played them," Wagner said. "That's something we certainly have spoken a lot about and that's something that you got to work on collectively in practice. But the difference is going to be if we come out there expecting to be in a tight match and responding the right way."

The Skylights will head on the road to play RMC this Friday at 7 p.m.