Breaking Sports: Skylights topple Battlin' Bears

MSU-Northern's Joni Nagy (right) tips a ball past a Rocky Mountain College defender during Friday night's Frontier Conference volleyball match in Havre.

The Montana State University-Northern vollleyball team opened the Frontier Conference season with two home matches against two of the top teams in the league. And yet, the Skylights are now 2-0 in league play. On Friday night at the Armory Gymnasium, Northern defeated Rocky Mountain College in four sets, by scores of 34-32, 21-25, 25-22 and 25-23 in what was a thrilling match.

After a wild first set, in which the teams traded set points several times, MSU-N looked to take command, but instead, Rocky rebounded with a second-set win to even the match. However, as expected, the veteran Skylights remained poised, as they ripped off key scoring runs on their serve in the third and fourth sets, both of which were close affairs.

Abby Nicholas led four Skylights in double figures with 18 kills. Hillary Isleifson had 14 kills and 12 digs, while Holly Cartwright had 28 digs, and Joni Nagy recorded a career-high five of Northern's 10 aces.

Now the 8-8 Skylights will look to complete the home sweep with a match against new league member Dickinson State on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Havre.

For full coverage, see Monday's Havre Daily News.