With a week off to rest and retool, the Montana State University-Northern volleyball team will start an exciting stretch of six home matches over the next four weeks.
    The action starts tonight when the Skylights take on Montana Tech at 7 p.m. at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse in Havre. MSU-N also plays host to UM-Western on Saturday at 5 p.m.
    Northern limped into its bye week losers of five straight matches. The Skylights’ season began with promise, especially their Frontier Conference schedule, where they got off to a quick 2-0 start with wins at Tech and Western. But at the break, the Skylights are 2-5 and 9-8 overall. And with the Frontier tournament a little less than a month away, MSU-N second-year head coach Bill Huebsch says the time is now for MSU-N to make its move.
    “I think he week off was good in that it gave us time to rest, especially mentally,” Huebsch said. "We spent a good portion of the first part of our season on the road, and I think the team was mentally tired. We’ve worked on fundamentals, really getting back to basics. We felt our passing and defense needed improving and we’ve really got after those aspects. So this bye week has really been good for us. It’s given us a chance to regroup.”
    Tonight, the Skylights will get a chance to put that theory to the test when the Montana Tech Orediggers (2-5, 10-10) come calling. Northern swept Tech in Butte last month, but Huebsch expects the Diggers’ to be ready for some redemption tonight. Tech is a talented team, and the Orediggers have a home grown product in Big Sandy standout Shersteen Cline, as well as star hitters in Cassie Hodges and Katie Daly.
    “We expect Tech’s best effort,” Huebsch said. “We expect they’ll come in here feeling like they didn’t play their best the first time we saw them. They are a good team, and we played well against them the first time, we blocked well and played good defense, but we didn’t hit as well as we’re capable of and they certainly seemed flat against us in Butte.
    “They have really good players and they hit a heavy ball,” he added. “A lot of their offense seems to go through Katie Daly, and they have Cassie Hodges back this year. And Shersteen Cline is having a really good season. So we need to be ready for their very best effort.”
    Northern will counter the Diggers’ talent with some of its own. Senior Kaylee Bossert is in the Top 10 in five different categories in the Frontier Conference, and is having an all-american type season. Setter Jordan Merrill is also directing the MSU-N offense at a high level. Merrill is second in the league in total assists.
    And speaking of the Bulldogs, MSU-N will look to make it two in a row when Western comes to Havre on Saturday night. The Bulldogs are 0-7 in league play and 1-15 overall heading into its match tonight at UGF. And the Skylights swiftly swept the Bulldogs in three games last month in Dillon.
    But like Tech, Huebsch is throwing out what happened the first time around, and he says Western can be a very dangerous team in Havre.
    “The second time we all play each other, it becomes increasingly harder and harder to win,” Huebsch said. “And I look at Western as a very dangerous team. They don’t have any pressure on them, they can play loose and having nothing to lose. Those are always dangerous opponents.”
    The Bulldogs are paced by senior outside hitter Teresa Bennett, as well as all-around sophomore Kayla Schmid. Junior middle blocker Susie Rehse is also having a strong season for Western at the net, so the bulldogs certainly won’t be a pushover on Saturday night.
    “I think Western has gotten much better as the year has gone on,” Huebsch said. “They’ve played some of the upper teams in our league very tough. So we’re not overlooking them at all. We know we’re going to have to be at our best to win.”
    The start of Northern’s home stand is also important as it pertains to seeding for the upcoming Frontier tournament. If the Skylights hold their home court, they could climb to as high as third our fourth in the Frontier standings in the next three weeks. Tonight’s match is a big starting point for the Skylights as they are tied with Tech for sixth place in the league.
    “This is a big weekend for us,” Huebsch said. “We know we certainly need to play better at home than we did against LC and Westminster. We can have a really good second half of the season. We have some goals for how we want to finish and it starts with taking care of business at home. We need to take advantage of these matches we have on our home court.”
    Tonight’s match between the Skylights and Orediggers will get underway at 7 at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse. The Skylights will play Western at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Northern is also home next Friday to host UGF.