Skylights earn impressive split with Griffins and Bulldogs

George Ferguson

Havre Daily News sports editor

gferguson@havredailynews.com

During its opening weekend of Frontier Conference play and its first two matches at home in 2006, the Montana State University-Northern Skylights volleyball team showed fans and first-year head coach Greg Ryan both sides of how a young team can play.

Northern earned a conference split at home this weekend, losing to Westminster College in a sweep on Friday night, and then turning around and sweeping defending Frontier champion UM-Western on Saturday.

“I think you saw the kids play a lot more relaxed tonight,” Ryan said after the sweep of the Bulldogs Saturday. “Against Westminster, we played very tight and that leads to being tentative and being tentative leads to errors.

“But against Western, we were a lot more relaxed,” he added. “And we played much better as a result of being relaxed.”

Indeed, on Saturday, the Skylights came out and took command of the match against a winless UM-Western team by getting outside hitters Carlee Hoff and Rachel Mrdeza going early. Northern broke an 11-11 tie in the first game on a Mrdeza kill that sent the Skylights on a 14-4 run that put them out in front for good. The Skylights took the first game in convincing fashion, 30-20.

The second game of the match was the only time in which the Skylights found themselves in any kind of trouble, and when they were, they responded more like a veteran team than a young group still trying to find their identity.

The game remained close early, but the Bulldogs found a rhythm on offense behind the hitting of Jenny Finlay and the blocking of Nicole Clark, and they were up late, 21-17.

Northern stayed close, despite the fact that Western came within two points of closing out the game and evening the score at 1-1.

But trailing 28-26, Tera O’Haire put away an important tip kill, and Mrdeza followed that up with back-to-back thunderous shots down the line to put the Skylights ahead 29-28. On game point, the Skylights put the Bulldogs away with a stuff block from O’Haire and setter Brittany Sesler.

“That was one of the things this team really showed me tonight,” Ryan said. “We got behind in the second game and we were able to come back and find a way to win. Those kinds of things are important to a team’s confidence. The second game of a match is critical and if you lose it, anything can happen. So I was really pleased with how our kids responded at that time in the match.”

Northern’s response in game two all but put the struggling Bulldogs away.

The Skylights raced out to an early lead in the third game, and cruised to a 30-15 win, earning the three-game sweep in front of a boisterous MSU-N student section.

In only her second match of the season, Hoff racked up 10 of MSU-N’s 39 kills. She also had three of Northern’s incredible 15 service aces. Mrdeza added nine kills and 10 digs, and Sesler led the attack on the floor with 28 assists, five kills and five aces.

“One of the things that I really liked about this match is that the kids really were upbeat and ready to play coming in,” Ryan said. “We didn’t hang our heads after the loss on Friday night. Instead, they came back here determined and focused and excited to play. I liked seeing that in this team.”

If the Skylights had been down because of Friday night, they might have had good reason.

Despite playing fairly well, MSU-N was soundly defeated in its home-opener by Westminster by scores of 30-24, 30-23 and 30-22.

“I don’t think we played poorly at all on Friday,” Ryan said. “Again, I just think we were very tentative and we just never relaxed. I think it was a little of: we were playing the best team in the conference, we were at home for the first time and we’re a young team.”

The Skylights kept the match close in all three games. But there were critical points in each that separated Westminster and MSU-N for good. And most of those moments came on hitting or serving errors that stopped MSU-N’s momentum.

“I thought as a whole, both Carlee Hoff and Rachel Mrdeza hit the ball well this weekend,” Ryan said. “But Friday was Carlee’s first match, and I think she was definitely a little nervous. But she relaxed a lot more on Saturday and played very well. In fact, the whole team was just much more relaxed on Saturday.”

Against Westminster, Hoff and Mrdeza led MSU-N with nine kills apiece. O’Haire added six kills and an ace, and Jeanna McPherson chipped in with five kills, as well as playing solidly at the net.

“Again, I don’t think we played badly against Westminster,” Ryan said. “We were just tight and that led to some errors that we didn’t make on Saturday. But we were in every game of the match on Friday and that is very important.

Northern, 1-1 in conference, will return to the road on Friday when the Skylights play at Carroll College. MSU-N will visit Rocky Mountain College on Saturday.

“Overall, I am very pleased with this weekend,” Ryan said. “I saw a lot of good things from this team. I think this weekend gives us something to build on. And it lets us know that things are pointed in the right direction.”

Friday

Westminster def. MSU-Northern

30-24, 30-23, 30-22

WC — Kills 43 (Angie johnson 16); Assists 39 (Monica Shorts 34); Aces 6 (Shorts 2); Digs 44 (Tahnie Taly 14); Blocks 9 (Johnson 2).

MSU-N — Kills 37 (Carlee Hoff 9, Rachel Mrdeza 9, Tera o’Haire 6); Assists 33 (Brittany Sesler 29); Aces 3 (Hoff 2); Digs 42 (Kelly Thorpe 15); Blocks 4.

Saturday

MSU-Northern def. UM-Western

30-20, 30-28, 30-15

UM-W — Kills 29 (Jenny Finlay 8, Nicole Clark 8); Assists 24 (Kyla Rasmussen 13); Aces 5 (Lindsey Nicholls 2); Digs 34 (Kiley Myers 8); Blocks 5 (Arron Fjeld 1, Ashlee Johnson 1).

MSU-N — Kills 39 (Carlee Hoff 10, Rachel Mrdeza 9); Assists 34 (Brittany Sesler 29); Aces 15 (Sesler 5, Hoff 3, Amy Mauer 3); Digs 46 (Kelly Thorpe 11, Mrdeza 10).