Skylights earn weekend split

George Ferguson

Havre Daily News sports editor

gferguson@havredailynews.com

Night and day. It might sound cliche, but that is exactly how the Montana State University-Northern volleyball team looked this weekend at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse.

After suffering a three-game sweep at the hands of Lewis-Clark State on Friday night, the Skylights stormed out of the gates early and never looked back on their way to a three-game sweep of Montana Tech Saturday night.

Against Tech, the Skylights jumped out to a big lead in game one and cruised to a dominating 30-17 win. Tech fought back in game two, but Northern withstood the Orediggers’ run and captured not only the second game by a score of 30-24, but the third game as well, 30-25.

“That is something I really liked in our team tonight,” MSU-N head coach Greg Ryan said.

“Even though we were playing well, they (Tech) made a nice run at us in the second and third games. But we finished strong. We haven’t been in that position too many times, and we just finished each game very strong.”

Northern was also aided by the offensive play of outside hitter Carlee Hoff, who followed up a 19-kill performance on Friday night with 18 kills against Tech. Hoff’s play helped spark the MSU-N offense and put the Orediggers back on their heels throughout the match.

“I think we’re starting to get into a really good groove right now,” Hoff said. “Tonight, I was on the same page with my setter and things went really well.

“We had a good practice before this match,” she added. “And we did a good job of executing what we learned in that practice.”

Against Tech, the Skylights also got a strong performance from starter Jody Berglund. She added a season-high 10 kills and also served up a pair of aces.

“I just think against Montana Tech we were much more relaxed and you can see how well we play when we relax and execute our style of play,” Ryan said. “Montana Tech is a pretty good team, and I don’t think there is much of a difference between them and Lewis-Clark State. It’s just that we played much more relaxed and we didn’t make the critical hitting errors tonight that we did on Friday. I think as a team, our blocking was much better as well.”

Northern did look like a much more relaxed team on Saturday night in its three-game sweep of Tech. But even though LC State swept them by scores of 30-25, 30-25 and 30-28, the Skylights didn’t exactly play poorly.

“I don’t think we played poorly,” Ryan said. “We just didn’t execute our offense at critical times.

“Again, I think that goes back to being a young team with a lot of players who have not had many conference matches,” he added. “We’re going to have matches like that. But this weekend I saw us improve a lot. I thought we were in every game of the match on Friday. I think a sign that we are getting better and getting more comfortable as a team is that we’re becoming much more stable from a mental standpoint. Our highs aren’t too high and our lows aren’t that low anymore. And with how we came back and played on Saturday, I think that we are starting to become a much stronger team mentally.”

Besides Hoff’s 19 kills in Friday night’s match, the Skylights also got a huge push from senior Jeanna McPherson. The former Havre High standout had a season-high 11 kills, most of which came from the middle of the net, as well as a pair of digs on the defensive end. Libero Kelly Thorpe led the Skylights defensively with a match-high 19 digs.

With the weekend split at home, the Skylights improved to 2-3 in conference play and 4-9 overall. The Skylights, who are in fifth place in the Frontier Conference, will host the University of Great Falls on Wednesday night. The Argos are tied for second in the league at 4-1.

LC State def. MSU-Northern

30-25, 30-25, 30-28

LC — Kills 43 (Julie Maciboba 11, Dana Christiansen 9, Kelly Scott 9); Aces 5 (Five with 1); Assists 41 (Mindy Meyer 34); Digs 39 (Lindsay Scott 10, Julie Nebeker 10); Blocks 9 (Brittney Kubik 2).

MSU-N — Kills 48 (Carlee Hoff 19, Jeanna McPherson 11); Aces 4 (Jody Berglund 2); Assists 42 (Brittany Sesler 37); Digs 45 (Kelly Thorpe 19, Hoff 10); Blocks 5 (Amy Mauer 1, Hoff 1).

MSU-Northern def. Montana Tech

30-17, 30-24, 30-25

Tech — Kills 30 (Cassie Hodges 8, Marie McNeil 8); Aces 4 (Four with 1); Assists 28 (Jodi Hogart 25); Digs 17 (McNeil 7); Blocks 4.

MSU-N — Kills 46 (Carlee Hoff 18, Jody Berglund 10); Aces 8 (Brittany Sesler 5, Hoff 2); Assists 39 (sesler 29); Digs 28 (Sesler 7); Blocks 6.5.