The Skylights volleyball team traveled to Billings on Thursday to fight the Rocky Mountain College Battling Bears.
The Bears came out serving tough and stunned the Skylights with 13 aces, nine of which flew off or bounced in seniors' Lyndi Hostetter and Janelle Gillies' area.
"I usually want teams to serve to our seniors," Skylights coach Lisa Handley said, "But at Rocky, Lyndi and Janelle had a tough time on serve receive."
Freshman Stephanie Lanfear helped keep the Skylights in the match smashing down 14 kills out of 27 sets, hitting .444 on the night. Sophomores Andrea Knox and Tanja Bruski combined for 15 more kills and hit .583 and .278 respectively.
"It was one of the most bizarre matches I've experienced," Handley said. "We had our worse night yet on serve receive, yet had one of the best nights attacking. We hit .353 as a team."
Out of 90 possible points scored by Rocky, the Skylights gave the Bears 41 points on unforced and serve receive errors.
"Rocky has tasted success and is still feeding on it," Handley said. "We, on the other hand, are just now getting our taste buds wet, and when these young ladies decide for themselves that they are hungry enough, they will begin to play up to their winning capabilities."
Rocky defeated the Skylights 30-22, 30-21, 30-22.
The Skylights then headed off to Carroll College to go against NAIA's number 19 ranked Saints on Friday.
The Skylights sported a new lineup, starting with a three-middle offense to give the Skylights a bigger front line. The new lineup helped the Skylights to force Carroll to a challenging first match, falling just short 30-25.
But a breakdown in passing and communication in the second game saw the Skylights get torn down 30-14 in game two.
The Skylights sparked back up in the third game and fought hard, only to lose 30-26.
Northern hit .204 on Saturday night behind Knox's 11 kills out of 16 attempts, hitting .688 on the night. Hostetter dug up 12 of the Skylights 36 digs and Bruski and Chambliss each had two assist blocks.
The Skylights will play at home this weekend, facing NAIA's hard-hitting number nine ranked Lewis and Clark College on Friday at 7 p.m. On Saturday night the Skylights will have a special family night promotion at the Westminster match at 7 p.m. A family of four will get in, have hot dogs, pop and popcorn all for $20 and will be able to partake in special promotions.
