I didn't see it for myself. But I didn't need to be there to know just how exciting and how important last Friday night's volleyball match between the Montana State University-Northern Skylights and the Lewis-Clark State Warriors really was.

    MSU-N defeated the nationally-ranked Warriors in five sets to take a hold of first place in the Frontier Conference standings. And MSU-N is in first place for the first time at the halfway point in the season in who knows how long.

    But first place in the conference is only one of a myriad of reasons why Friday night's victory was so huge for the program.

    First off, the Skylights once again showed just how far they've come since the season began.

    In the preseason, MSU-N played several close five-setters against nationally-ranked teams in Las Vegas and Spokane, and in several of those, they came up short. But Northern has done what every team sets out to do, and that's keep getting better, week-after-week.

    That mission has certainly been accomplished so far.

    The Skylights already beat a nationally-ranked opponent to open the Frontier Conference season in Carroll College, but Friday night's win proved Northern has continued to rise.

    And the fact that the Skylights lost the first set, and had to battle for five grueling sets overall, and still won, is a testament to the maturity and poise fourth-year head coach Bill Huebsch's team has this season.

    Then there's beating the Warriors.

    LC State has long been the cream of the Frontier Conference crop. The Warriors have won four straight league titles and three of the last four conference tournament championships. In only one of the last 19 seasons has LCSC not went to at least the regional portion of the  national tournament, so to say the Warriors are a dominant program would be putting it mildly.

    And before Friday night, it had been a very long time since an MSU-N team was able to take down the Warriors in a conference match.

    In fact, in Huebsch's first three years at Northern, the Skylights had never even taken a set off LC State.

    But that all changed on Friday night, and it's evidence that things have completely changed for the Skylight volleyball program.

    I have been covering Northern volleyball now for the better part of eight years and much of that, the program has struggled to keep up in the always-tough Frontier.

    But I have known Bill Huebsch for much longer than eight years and I knew the kind of intangibles he would bring to the MSU-N program. Huebsch is intense and passionate about the sport of volleyball, he's competitive and driven to excel and yet he's a player's coach who gets the most out of his teams while treating his players with respect and dignity.

    In this world of win-at-all costs, coaches aren't always like that.

    And now, with Huebsch at the helm, the program is starting to really rise.

    It hasn't been an easy climb, as Northern has taken plenty of lumps in the last three years.

    But the rebuilding process is never easy. Yet, Huebsch and the current and many past Northern players have taken the challenge of rebuilding the program head on, and we're all starting to see the fruits of all that labor.

    And a conference win over the mighty and seemingly unbeatable Lewis-Clark State Warriors is evidence that the program continues to climb towards new heights and big things.

    Will there still be bumps in the road? Sure there will be. The process is far from over.

    But a perfect home record, an already dramatic road win against a much-improved Western team, first place at the halfway point, and wins over both Carroll and LC State in the same season, those are big feathers in the cap of the Northern program.

    Like I said, I wasn't there to see it with my own eyes. But I sure wish I would have been because beating LC State, that's something pretty special.

    But I also know, with where the Skylight program is heading, there's a good chance, I'll get to see Northern beat LC State again sometime, with my own eyes.