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Skylights
sweep series with UGF By Ryan Divish/Havre
Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com The Montana State
University-Northern volleyball team learned something on Wednesday night. The
Skylights can finish teams off with a lead, even when they aren't playing
perfectly. Northern shook off a
minor distraction from the opposing coach, a sloppy second game and plenty of
unforced of errors in a 30-18, 21-30, 30-25, 30-9 victory over the University
of Great Falls Argos the a packed MSU-Northern gymnasium. The Skylights, who ran a
"Pack the House" promotion, didn't disappoint the crowd of around
500 fans. Behind some huge blocks and some solid hitting, Northern improved
its record to 3-7 in conference and 13-15 overall on the season and completed
a regular season sweep of the Argos. "I thought we
played pretty well," said Skylights head coach Lisa Handley. "We
made a few too many unforced errors, but we were able to overcome them." There weren't many
errors early for the Skylights. In game one, Northern stormed to a 10-2 lead
on a monster block from freshman Jeanna McPherson. On the play, UGF head
coach Dick Scott was upset with what he perceived to be a no call on
McPherson being over the net and argued the call. Scott received a yellow
card for his argument which only incensed him more. After an off-color remark
about the yellow card, Scott was given a red card and ejected from the game. "I never heard what
he said," Handley said. "I didn't even know what happened." What often happens when
a coach is ejected is his team adapts an "us against the world"
mentality. UGF was no different, with assistant coach Michelle Peterson
running the team, the Argos fought their way back into the game. A tip-kill by setter
Ashley Zerr-Smith and a kill from Stephanie Smith brought UGF within four at
14-9. But after watching leads slip away a week ago to Montana Tech, the
Skylights would have none that. Kills from Lindsay
Garcia and Tanja Bruski pushed the Skylights lead back to six. Northern
capitalized on several Argo mistakes while a pair of aces from Bruski and
three kills from Philips closed out the game at 30-18. As has been the trend
all season, the Skylights have struggled in the second game, following game
one victories. It was no different Wednesday night. Northern came out in game
two and played sloppily, committing unforced error after unforced error as
UGF grabbed an 18-8 lead. "We committed 11
unforced errors of the first 12 points," Handley said. "We simply
can't have those type of mistakes and expect to have any success." Despite the mistakes,
the Skylights still managed to keep themselves in game two behind McPherson,
who had two kills and two blocks to pull Northern within nine at 26-17. But
kills from Melanie Dochylos and Deidre Ranf ended game two, 30-21. "When we start
making mistakes, we kind of get down on ourselves," Garcia said.
"But after losing a game like that, you play harder in the next game
because it's kind of embarrassing, losing like that." Garcia's theory proved
right as Northern came out after the short intermission and played much
crisper. A block from McPherson and a laser of a kill from Garcia put the
Skylights up 14-10. However, spurred on by
its success in game two, UGF hung tough. A Kelly Thorpe block gave Northern a
5-point lead at 21-16, but it was short-lived as kills from Ranf, Jennifer
Wright and Smith and a blown exchange from the Skylights tied the game at
21-21. The Argos took their first lead of the game on an Emmy Olson hitting
error at 24-23. Trying to cling some
momentum, Handley inserted Tera O'Haire for Olson and the freshman responded.
O'Haire rolled over a soft kill and another tip to push the lead to 27-24. The number 27 has been
considered unlucky for the Skylights this season. On countless occasions,
Northern has lost games after getting to 27 including last week's game four
loss to Tech in which Northern led 27-17. However, there would be
no curse in this game. A Phillips kill, a net serve from UGF and a
McPherson-O'Haire combo block ended game three 30-25. "We figured out how
to pull it together and finish a team off," Garcia said. "Coach has
been stressing finishing teams off for the past two weeks." But the true finisher
came in game four, as the Skylight annihilated UGF 30-9 to close out the
match. Northern's Julie Henderson put on a serving clinic as the Skylights
rattled off 17 straight points on her serving. Henderson mixed in a few aces
while Garcia absolutely pounded the ball. "Great Falls runs a
high right block and I told Lindsay just to swing away," Handley said.
"She really got going." Garcia finished with 10
kills while Phillips finished with a match-high 13 kills. "Mitsu hit a very
smart game," Handley said. "She was very smart with her shots and
really put the ball in the right spots." McPherson had a solid
match with three kills and five and half kills while Thorpe dished out 32
assists and picked up 16 digs. Henderson finished with 15 digs and a
team-high four aces. Great Falls, which
dropped to 1-9 in the conference and 4-20 overall, was led by Mellany
Dochylos with 10 kills and nine digs. While the win didn't
have a huge effect in terms of the conference standings, there was plenty
that will come from it. "It should definitely
help with our confidence," Handley said. "It was a total team
effort with everyone contributing." Northern will have the
remainder of the week and begin preparing for next weekend's matches at
UM-Western and Westminster. "This rest is
really going to help us recovery-wise" Garcia said. "We've been
going for 10 or 12 days straight and we're little banged up. We need to be
ready to win two next weekend." MSU-Northern def.
University of Great Falls 30-18, 21-30, 30-25,
30-9 UGF - Kills 38 (Mellany
Dochylos 10, Stephanie Smith 6), Assists 27 (Ashley Zerr-Smith 27), Aces 9
(Zerr-Smith 3, Smith 3), Digs 54 (Denise McLain 17, Jaclyn Bird 10), Blocks 3
(Deidre Ranf 1ð). MSUN - Kills 40 (Mitsu
Phillips 13, Lindsay Garcia 10), Assists 36 (Kelly Thorpe 32), Aces 8 (Julie
Henderson 4), Digs 85 (Kelly Thorpe 15, Henderson 15), Blocks 14 (Jeanna
McPherson 5ð). |
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