Skylights hit the road to face
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
One day of driving and one day of sitting around, topped off with a match in
a gym roughly the size of a shoebox. It's not exactly the most enjoyable start
to the longest road trip on the Montana State University-Northern volleyball
team's schedule.
The Skylights open their lengthy road trip tonight when they face the
Westminster College Griffins at the Payne Gymnasium in
Northern, 2-3 in the Frontier Conference and 7-11 overall, is coming off a less
than inspiring conference loss to the University of Great Falls and a
nonconference loss the University of North Dakota.
Still, head coach Lisa Handley is excited about this weekend, not so much the
trip, but the opportunity for her team to add to its conference win total.
Westminster, also 2-3 in conference play and 4-9 overall, is a bit of an
unknown to Handley, who hasn't seen the Griffins play live, only on tape.
"They're kind of hot and cold," Handley said. "They don't have a
lot of wins, but they're a good team. They took Carroll to five games and Tech
to four. It certainly won't be an easy match"
Besides contending with the Griffins, the Skylights will have to contend with
the low ceiling of Payne Gymnasium.
"It's a very tough home court. It's awful. The ceiling is really low and
not regulation height. You really have to focus on keeping digs and passes
low."
Northern may have a slight advantage in terms of support.
"It's going to be a homecoming for Emilee and Jordan," Handley said.
"With all of their family and friends watching, I expect them to play
well."
When Fox and Madsen play well, Northern usually plays well. Fox is third in the
conference in points and kills per game and fourth in hitting percentage.
Madsen is fifth in the conference in assists.
The second part of the road trip doesn't get any easier. Northern will leave
Salt Lake City early Saturday morning and drive six hours to Dillon to play a
solid UM-Western squad later that evening.
The Bulldogs are tied for last in the Frontier with a 1-4 record and a 6-11
record overall, with one of those losses coming to Northern early in the
season.
"I think they are a different team from when we first played them,"
Handley said. "I know they are going to serve us tougher this time around.
I am sure they've heard that our serve-receive is our main weakness.
Indeed, when Northern has struggled this season it usually coincides with a
poor serve-receive performance. Handley and the Skylights certainly have logged
their hours on the practice court working on it.
The Skylights also worked on their own serving this week. It will be a key for
Northern in beating the Bulldogs and containing all-conference middle blocker
Katherine Sunwall.
Besides Sunwall, Western gets contributions from defensive specialist Kendall
Bradley, outside hitter Shannon O'Keefe and setter Lindsay Scott.
"Western is always tough at home," Handley said. "Plus they will
have some added incentive after we beat them up here."
Northern has yet to win a road conference match, but Handley hopes to change
that this weekend
"It all comes down to how much they want to win," she said.
"When they want to win, they have a look about them. I didn't see it
against UGF. Hopefully, I will see it this weekend."