Statement served: Argos sweep Skylights

Statement served: Argos sweep Skylights
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com

The University of Great Falls served up a statement Wednesday night at the Montana State University-Northern Gymnasium: There are no free matches in the Frontier Conference

UGF used brilliant passing, solid hitting and youthful enthusiasm to roll over the MSU-Northern Skylights 30-21, 30-23, 30-18 in a key conference showdown.
"I definitely think we made a statement," said UGF head coach Arunas Duda after the match. "I think we showed tonight that there isn't any easy wins when you play us."

There was nothing easy for the Skylights on Wednesday. In fact, Northern head coach Lisa Handley expected a dogfight.

"Great Falls is a good team and we knew that going in," Handley said "We expected a five-game match. We expected them to play well and for us to play well, unfortunately we didn't keep our end."

Indeed, Northern looked like a completely different team than the one that took the court this past weekend in wins over Lewis-Clark State and Montana Tech. Instead, it was a team that played inconsistently with certain aspects of its game falling apart at different times.

"We talked about how important it was to play consistently," Handley said. "And tonight we played consistently bad."

It didn't start out that way as both teams traded points early in game one. The Argos pushed their lead to 15-10 on an Ashley Harris kill. Northern rallied to take a 16-15 lead thanks to kills from Jasmine Mitchell and Julie Henderson, an ace from Katy Engstrom and a pair of UGF hitting errors.

But that's the only lead Northern would have. Harris answered with another kill and a pair of service aces to push the lead to 18-16. The Argos would never trail again, building off the momentum and enthusiasm, rolling to a 30-21 win.

"That's a key for us," Duda said of his players' early intensity. "We're so young, that we need to come out intense right away and never get down on ourselves. We need to get that confidence early."

If game one was a confidence builder for UGF, game two only added another level.

The Argos jumped out to an early lead in game two behind the hitting of Harris and Deidre Ranf. Northern tied the game at 16 on a Emilee Madsen tip. But that was a close as the Skylights would get. A pair of hitting errors gave UGF the lead and it never trailed again.

A big stuff block from Harris, an ace from Becky Radiel and a kill from Carolina Hapke put the Argos up four. Northern would cut the lead to two points, before UGF put the Skylights away 30-23.

Down 2-0 wasn't exactly how Handley envisioned starting the match. However, her team had fought back from two games down on two different occasions this season. But it wasn't going to happen against UGF.

The Argos grabbed a quick 11-3 lead as Northern was plagued by mistakes. The Skylights got as close as 12-9, but never got any closer. Another Harris block gave UGF a five-point lead at 15-10. The Argos never looked back, getting multiple kills from Radiel, Hapke and Sara Wilton to close out the game and the match.

"We served a lot tougher and our passing definitely improved since the last time we played them," Duda said. "We're a good offensive team, but our passing needs to be there."

Said Handley: "Great Falls passed incredibly well tonight. They were able to get into their offense and make some things happen. Moving Brittany Prater to libero was a great move by Arunas. She's a tremendous passer and leader on the floor."

Statistically, the Argos were better than the Skylights in almost every category, including kills (35-34), aces (9-4), digs (24-22) and blocks (10-1).

The last statistic was particularly galling to Handley.

"That's unbelievable that we got out-blocked like that," Handley said. "We lead the conference in blocks and only get one on the night?"

Harris, at 6-2, caused some problems at the net for Northern hitters, but Handley didn't think hitting should have been that difficult.

Her team had 34 hitting errors to 35 kills, which led to a hitting percentage of .010, a far cry from Northern's .419 hitting percentage against Tech.

"We just weren't hitting smart," Handley said. "They didn't expect the block to be there and were hitting off their approach. At the college level, you can't win matches hitting like that."

Harris led UGF with nine kills and five blocks, while Hayley Wright dished out 26 assists and Prater picked up eight digs. UGF improved its record to 2-3 in the conference and 7-11 overall.

To be fair, the Skylights were not operating at 100 percent. Madsen and some of her other teammates were fighting the flu bug that has beset Havre, while Fox didn't practice all week from a strained quadriceps and libero Kelly Thorpe was hobbled by an aching back. Still, Handley wasn't looking for excuses.

"Emilee probably shouldn't have played tonight," Handley said. "But she wanted to because that's the type of person she is. But as a team we didn't pass the way we should have, knowing that Emilee wasn't 100 percent.

"Jordan wasn't moving and jumping as well as she usually does," Handley said. "I know she was hurting, but I kept her out there hoping she could fight through it and make some plays."

Fox never looked comfortable, finishing with just three kills before Handley sat her down in the third game to rest the leg.

"I probably should have sat her down sooner," Handley said. "But when she's not on for us, we have a hard time getting other players on. Still, we have to find a way because Jordan isn't always going to be able to bail us out."

Mitchell led Northern with 10 kills, while Madsen finished with 28 assists. Henderson and McPherson added six kills each in the loss.

The loss drops the Skylights to 3-2 in conference and 10-10 overall and ends their five-match winning streak at home. But for Handley, this bad of a loss at home shows that her team still hasn't battled through the inconsistency that plagued it early in the season.

"It's (Rocky Mountain College) all over again," Handley said. "We're up, we're down. We've talked about earning respect in the conference, but until they're consistent, they're not going to get the respect they deserve."

It doesn't get any easier for the Skylights as they will travel to Williston, N.D. to take on NCAA Division II University of North Dakota in a nonconference match at 1 p.m.

U of Great Falls def. MSU-Northern

30-21, 30-23, 30-18

UGF - Kills 35 (Ashley Harris 9); Assists 27 (Hayley Wright 26); Aces 9 (Sara Wilton 3); Digs 24 (Brittany Prater 8); Blocks 10 (Harris 5).

MSU-N - Kills 34 (Jasmine Mitchell 10); Assists 31 (Emilee Madsen 28); Aces 4 (Four with 1); Digs 22 (Katy Engstrom 5, Emilee Madsen 5); Blocks 1 (Tera O'Haire 1)