Skylights head to Frontier tourney to face Carroll

It’s been a rough end to the 2017 Frontier Conference volleyball season for the Montana State University-Northern Skylights. Fortunately, in the postseason, records mean nothing.

And now Northern has a chance to prove that as the Skylights enter the Frontier Conference Tournament looking to pull some upsets. MSU-N Skylights, who lost their last five matches, may not have momentum on their side when they take on Carroll College Friday night, but Northern also knows it can play well against anybody in the league.

MSU-N enters the tournament as the No. 6 seed after going 3-9 in conference play and 9-17 overall in Rose Obunaga’s inaugural season at the helm. Though the end of the year has been a little rough, at one point the Skylights were sitting alone in third place in the conference standings and they will be looking to get back to that form this weekend in Helena.

That form means the Skylights’ offense must come alive. Cassie Krueger led the Frontier in kills with 300 this season, and Timi Severson was ninth in hitting percentage and 16th in the league with 202 kills. But as a team, Northern has struggled on attack, as the Skylights hit just .163 for the year and were last in the Frontier in kills per set.

Those struggles on offense can be attributed to Northern’s short-handed rotations. The Skylights lost starting setter Hailey Warren early in the year, and toward the end, sophomore outside hitter Haley Yoder went down with an injury. That took a toll on Obunaga’s already short-handed bench. And it’s also offset just how well Northern has played on defense. The Skylights, led by the blocking of Mikayla Virostek, Katia Michelotti and Severson, finished fourth in the league in total blocks, and they were also strong in the back row, led by libero Hannah Amtmann’s 378 digs, which was fifth in the Frontier. Krueger also had a huge year defensively, finishing with 265 digs, which is rare for an attacker, while senior Kylie Pasieka has also played good defense for the Skylights this season.

So with Northern bringing a solid defense to Helena, if the Skylights can get their attack going, and stay consistent, they know they can play with the Fighting Saints, who finished at 8-4 in the Frontier, and beat the Skylights twice this fall. And while Carroll is a strong, tall team, Northern will have its chances with its outstanding block.

And a chance is all the Skylights are looking for. They’ll be underdogs in the Frontier tournament, especially playing Carroll on the Saints’ home floor in the first round, but Northern can draw on how well it’s played at times throughout the season. Through the ups and downs, the Skylights have never lacked confidence.

"I still think we can do a lot of things that other people might not see coming If we come together and worked really, really hard, this tournament at the end of the season could go really, really well for us," Krueger said.

The Frontier tournament starts with fourth-seeded Providence (20-9) taking on fifth-seeded Lewis-Clark State (10-13) Friday at 2 p.m. The second match starts at 5 p.m. and pits second-seeded Rocky Mountain College (21-10) against seventh-seeded UM-Western (9-17). The Skylights (9-17) and Carroll (15-11) will take the floor at 7 p.m. in the final first-round match. The tournament continues Saturday with top-seeded Montana Tech (20-8) taking on the lowest remaining seed at 11 a.m. in one semifinal, while the second semifinal will be played at 1 p.m. between the two highest remaining seeds. The Frontier championship match is set for 7 p.m. Saturday night, with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the NAIA national tournament.

All of the Frontier tourney action takes place at the Carroll College P.E. Center in Helena.