By Tiffany L. Rehbein
In up-and-down Frontier Conference volleyball play, the MSU-Northern Skylights will face off against Carroll College Wednesday at the MSU-Northern gymnasium.
The Skylights, 2-1 in conference play, are coming off a Frontier Conference Saturday win over Montana Tech 15-12, 18-16, 15-12.
The Saints, 3-0 in the conference, are coming off a huge win over defending conference champion Western Montana College 15-13, 15-9, 15-13.
Western downed Northern 15-9, 15-17, 15-12 Friday at Havre.
However, Tech, whom Northern defeated, has downed Western and Carroll. Northern has defeated Rocky Mountain College who, in turn, has defeated Tech and Carroll.
The Skylights lead the Frontier Conference in team serving percentage at 94 percent.
Sophomore Lyndi Hostetter is second in the conference with a 98 percent average during 35 games played.
Gabrielle Chambliss and Jen Sanders served 100 percent against Montana Tech.
The Skylights are third in the conference averaging 1.66 aces per game.
Hostetter is fourth overall, averaging .46 aces per game. She landed four against Montana Tech Saturday.
Senior Melanie Baack led the Skylights with 19 kills against Montana Tech.
Six-foot-2 freshman Jaley Wacker had nine kills in the effort.
Chambliss tallied 26 assists in the match, while teammate Jessica Gerenz notched 18.
Gerenz stands seventh in the conference, averaging 4.6 per game.
Defensively, senior Heather Hammonds averages .86 blocks per game, standing seventh in the conference.
Against Montana Tech, the Skylights had 57 digs, led by Hostetter with 19 in the contest.
Carrolls Tracie Nemecheck collected 14 kills Saturday against Western. She is the sixth leading hitter in the conference with an average of 2.93 per game.
Five-foot-10 sophomore Michelle Bisch, who stands at No. 5 overall in the Frontier Conference in kills with an average of 3.02 per game, notched 10 kills against Western.
Bisch also had a 2.99 attack percentage, good for a seventh place conference standing.
Junior Becky Elliot who averages 2.84 kills per game and stands eighth in the conference, had nine kills Saturday. Kristy Hays, who red-shirted last year, also had nine in the match.
Hays, an All-Conference player from Missoula, is a key to Carrolls offense.
Theyve got a good senior outside, said first-year head coach Lisa Handley. They are pretty well balanced and pretty good sized.
The key to the strong hitting for Carroll College is setter Sarah Search. The junior averages 11.25 assists per game and is second in the Frontier Conference.
Search is third in the conference, averaging .56 aces per game.
Defensively for the Saints, Bisch and Elliot can dig up the balls.
Bisch is third in the conference with a 94.4 percent passing average. Elliot is fifth overall with an average 3.57 digs per game.
The match is slated to begin tonight at 7 p.m. at the MSU-Northern gymnasium.
