No place like home
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
Maybe it's the opportunity to sleep in their own
beds. Maybe it's the opportunity to play in front of family and friends. Maybe
it's the ear-splitting music and rowdy atmosphere in the Montana State
University-Northern gymnasium.
Whatever it is, the MSU-Northern volley ball team is unbeatable at home this
season. The Skylights swept a pair of weekend matches, including a
scintillating five-game win over Montana Tech, to even their record at 2-2 in
the conference, and serve notice that they will be a team to be reckoned with
the rest of the season, especially at home.
Thus far this season, Northern is a perfect 6-0 in the MSU-Northern gymnasium.
And the Skylights' performance this weekend showed that their home record may
remain perfect for a while.
Northern cruised to an easy 30-19, 30-25, 30-24 victory over
The Skylights set the tone in the first game, rolling to a 12-5 lead. LC cut
the lead to 14-9, but got no closer as the Skylights capitalized on several
Warrior mistakes to take the game 30-19. Games two and three were closer at
times, but Northern was never in trouble at any point.
"They made a lot of errors that young teams make," Northern head
coach Lisa Handley said of the Warriors. "The biggest thing with LC is
that they aren't a real tough serving team. They hit a lot of top-spin serves
that are easier to pass, which is big for us. Any team that serves easy, I feel
like we should beat."
Indeed, Northern was able to make quality
passes to setter Emilee Madsen, and she was able to
sit back and choose from the Skylights' vast array of weapons, racking up 45
assists.
"I thought Emilee made great decisions and
really spread the ball around," Handley said. "She mixed it up and
got a lot of people involved in the offense. It's important that we have that,
so we aren't always relying Jordan (Fox) all the time.
Fox still led a balanced Skylight attack with 12 kills and 13 digs. Jasmine
Mitchell and Jeanna McPherson also had solid games,
picking up 10 kills each. Eight Skylights contributed to the team's 52 kills in
the match. It was a far cry from the Skylights' recent road woes.
"I think it makes a huge difference playing at home, especially for this
team," McPherson said. "We seem to play more focused when were at
home."
But it was McPherson's focus and offensive contributions that had Handley
excited.
"Jeanna had a great weekend for us," she
said. "She is trusting herself, trusting her
setter and swinging hard. She's starting to become more aggressive. It's
growth. She's still very young, but she is improving every game."
The win over LC was a perfect start to the weekend for the Skylights and the
perfect situation for Handley.
"It was huge to play at home and play LC first this weekend," Handley
said. "It gave us a lot of confidence going into Saturday's match against
Tech."
Although early on against Tech, it didn't seem like it. Northern wasn't quite
as aggressive as the night before and suffered some early hitting mistakes.
The Orediggers broke open a 20-18 game, capitalizing
on three consecutive hitting miscues from Northern and a pair of aces from
Collette Phillips to go up 25-18. Northern tried to battle back but got no
closer, and Tech closed out the game with a 30-23 win.
"I can't say that we were playing bad," Handley said. "We were
just kind of tentative and timid. That's not who we are as a team."
The second game didn't turn out much better, as the Diggers jumped out to a
14-5 lead. Northern cut the lead to 27-22 on a booming Fox kill. But,
back-to-back hitting errors by Northern and an ace from Emily Glasson ended the
rally at 30-22.
Down 2-0 wasn't exactly how Handley envisioned starting the match, but she
remained calm during the brief intermission after game two.
"A lot of people asked me if I chewed them out, but that doesn't work with
this team," Handley said. "I just tried to make them focus on our
game plan. I think they were more focused on who they were playing and trying
not to lose instead of focusing on things we needed to do to win."
Said Mitchell: "She wasn't too upset. She was
just waiting for someone to step up and play well."
The method worked. Northern looked like a completely different team in game
three as several players answered the call to step up. The Skylights jumped out
to a 14-8 lead on a vicious Mitchell kill. The Skylights closed out the game
with multiple kills from Fox, Mitchell, McPherson and Julie Henderson for a
30-19 win.
The momentum of the match was slowly switching to Northern's
side after game three. Tech tried to regain the momentum, grabbing a 7-2 lead
early in game four. But the Skylights rallied, tying the game at 13 on a
set-kill from Madsen.
From there, the teams traded points until Fox ripped a ball past Tech's defense
on an overpass to give Northern a 15-13 lead. It was a lead the Skylights would
never relinquish. Tech hung around for much of the game, cutting the lead to
two twice on Phillips' kills.
Clinging to a 27-25 lead, Northern got a clutch kill from O'Haire
and a pair of mistakes from Tech to get to game point.
In game five, Northern found itself in familiar territory, trailing early. In
both of the Skylights five-game matches this season,
they trailed at the halfway point when the two teams switch sides. It's
something that Handley pointed out to her team.
"When we were down 11-8, I reminded the girls that we were in the same
exact position against
Tech made the situation worse by pushing the lead to 13-8. Northern stopped the
run with a big backrow kill from Fox. A tech hitting
miscue, a block from McPherson and Henderson and an ace from Madsen cut the
lead to 13-12. Tech answered with a Phillips kill on a quick set to get to
match point.
Still, the normally poised Diggers, couldn't put the
pesky Skylights away.
Back-to-back kills from Henderson and Mitchell tied the game at 14. A Katy Engstrom ace gave the Skylights the lead and match point at
15-14. Northern clinched the match on the most unlikely of kills as libero Kelly Thorpe's soft shot from the back room found
the MSU-Northern gym floor, giving the Skylights the match.
"Everybody was out there talking on the floor and getting excited about
every little play," Mitchell said. "Everybody stepped up and
contributed. We said we didn't want to lose on our home floor this season and
it really pushed us."
Said Handley: "The girls never game up on themselves and
they never gave up on each other."
After a slow start, Fox finished with a team-high 15 kills. Henderson and
Mitchell added 13 and 12 kills, respectively, and McPherson and O'Haire combined for 20 kills. Madsen had another solid
night with 47 assists, while Thorpe had a match-high 20 digs. Tech was led by
Phillips, who finished with a match-high 25 kills.
"Our middles - Jeanna and Tera
- really hurt them," Handley said. "They were really keying on
With the wins, Northern improves to 2-2 in the Frontier Conference and 9-9
overall. But the wins mean more than just their place in the conference
standings.
"These are huge wins, especially the win over Tech," Handley said.
"They are one of the top teams in the conference and it shows that we are
capable of beating the best"
Northern will return to action on Wednesday when it hosts the
MSU-Northern def.
30-19, 30-25,
L-C ST.
MSU-N - Kills 52 (Jordan Fox 12, Jasmine Mitchell 10, Jeanna
McPherson 10), Assists 45 (Emilee Madsen 42), Aces 8
(Lindsay Garcia 3, Madsen 2), Digs 46 (Jordan Fox 13, Kelly Thorpe 10), Blocks
3 (McPherson 2, Julie Henderson 2).
MSU-Northern def.
23-30, 22-30, 30-19, 30-27, 16-14
TECH - Kills 62 (Collette Phillips 25, Janalee Stokken-Holmes 12), Assists 55 (Becky Hancock 51), Aces 7
(Phillips 4), Digs 51 (Beka Hudson 21), Blocks 4
(Phillips 4).
MSU-N - Kills 67 (Jordan Fox 15, Julie Henderson 13, Jasmine Mitchell 12, Tera O'Haire 11), Assists 55 (Emilee Madsen 47), Aces 8 (Katy Engstrom
2, Madsen 2), Digs 64 (Kelly Thorpe 20, Fox 11, Engstrom
11), Blocks 7 (Fox 2, Henderson 2, Mitchell 2).