MSU-N spikers swept by LC State

As well as the Montana State University-Northern volleyball team was playing coming into Thursday night's match in Lewiston, Idaho, the Lewis-Clark State Warriors were just playing that much better.

Having already lost to LC State in a three-game sweep last month in Havre, the Skylights suffered the same fate on Thursday night. The nationally-ranked Warriors defeated MSU-N in three games by scores of 25-13, 25-20 and 25-20.

LC State improved to a perfect 12-0 in the Frontier Conference and an outstanding 18-1 overall. MSU-N dropped to 4-7 in league play and 12-10 overall.

However, Northern played the Warriors much tougher on their home floor than the Skylights did back in Havre. After the first game, which LC State dominated, Northern got going on the offensive end of the floor. In the second set, the Skylights played well early on and led 14-8 at one point. In the third game, Northern also battled hard. Trailing by double figures early on, the Skylights clawed their way back into the set, and were only down 22-18 before LC State again made a strong push to finish the match off.

The loss ended Northern's two-match winning streak. Coming into this weekend's last regular season road trip, the Skylights had beaten UM-Western and UGF in dominant fashion on back-to-back weekend's.

In the loss to the Warriors, Brittany Baker paced Northern with nine kills, while Tasha Dyrland had seven kills and a block. Elise Davis added three kills and a stellar three solo blocks for the Skylights, while Karyssa Bowron had five kills and nine digs. Senior setter Jordan Merrill added 23 assists, one ace and seven digs in the loss.

The Skylights will take today off for travel, then wrap up their road trip with a match against Westminster College in Salt Lake City on Saturday.