Skylights stun Orediggers

The Montana State University-Northern volleyball team is hitting its stride, and to prove it, the Skylights got a huge win last week.

Last Thursday, Northern traveled to Butte and knocked off the No. 20 Montana Tech Orediggers in four sets.

The Skylights won against the Orediggers 3-1 (25-23, 13-25, 25-22, and 25-17). The Skylights got off to a good start taking the lead 9-5 in the first set. They kept the lead to take the first set. Montana Tech pushed the lead early in the second set and never looked back.

The Skylights took the lead early in the third set, but Tech went on a 5-0 run to take the lead 15-13. Northern answered back with a 8-2 run to take back the lead and push to win the set. The Skylights went on a 6-0 run to start the fourth set. Montana Tech couldn't come back after getting behind.

The Skylights were led by Alana Graves with 15 kills and a hitting percentage of .480. Jessalyn Chvilicek had 16 kills. Baily Egan led the team in digs with 24. Macee Murphy led the Skylights with 27 assists. The Orediggers was led by Kinnidi Willmore with 14 kills hitting a percent of .286. Jelena Joblanov led the team in digs with 24, as Rhys Layton led in assists with 48.

Northern then tried to knock off a second straight ranked opponent, when they took on the No. 19 Montana Western Bulldogs last Saturday at the Armory Gymnasium. However, the Bulldogs prevailed in a 3-2 thriller. The Skylights lost against the Bulldogs in five sets (19-25, 18-25, 25-18, 25-19 and 15-8).  The Skylights got off to a great start taking the lead early 12-6. Montana Western tried to battle back into the game, but Northern kept putting together some good runs to take the first set. Northern did it again in the second set taking the lead 16-8. The Bulldogs came back to tie the game 17 all, but the Skylights went on a 7-0 run to take the set.

The Bulldogs pulled away in the third set. Outscoring the Skylights 25-18. The Skylights scored the first four points in the fourth, however Western went on a 7-1 run to take the lead 10-7. Northern battled back, until Western went on a 9-3 run to finish out the fourth ahead. In the fifth set, the Bulldogs took the lead early and never looked back to take the match.  

The Skylights were led by Macee Murphy with 13 kills and a hitting percentage of .364. Alana Graves had 12 kills. Baily Egan led the team in digs with 28. Emily Feller led the Skylights with 25 assists. The Bulldogs were led by Jordan Olson with 17 kills hitting a percent of .213. Kelsey Goddard led the team in digs with 30, as Taylor Petersen led in assists with 29.

The weekend split gave Northern a 7-9 overall record, but 2-5 in the Frontier. Northern takes a break from league play, and will instead play at the Frontier-North Star Challenge in Billings.