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Final Armory nights for Northern volleyball

Skylights host Battlin Bears tonight; Northern seniors to return in the fall

The Montana State University-Northern volleyball team nears the end of their season that had to be pushed to the spring because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have had to play their entire season without any fans in attendance and their matches at home against Rocky Mountain College this Thursday and Friday will be no different.

Their match Friday would have been their senior night, but fortunately for MSU-N's four seniors, they have decided to come back for another semester to play in the fall and have their senior night then in front of fans.

"My hope is we have a fitting senior night in the fall for these four seniors," said MSU-N head coach Jerry Wagner.

Seniors Tammy Maddock and Shania Neubauer will graduate this spring but have taken the option to play this fall semester. Seniors Elissa Lind and Rylee Burmester were going to return anyway because they will graduate at the end of the fall semester. The Skylights will need their seniors' experience this weekend as they try to defeat the Bears.

The Skylights are 2-16 this season and are last in the Frontier Conference. March 20, they defeated Carroll College, 3-1, to snap a 14-match losing streak. However, they then lost a pair of matches to the University of Providence this past weekend.

"We didn't measure up to the team or my expectations as far as how hard we were going to work at it," Wagner said. "We got a real burr in our saddle and a bad taste in our mouth, so I'm expecting a much different approach to it."

The Skylights will need Burmester to continue leading the teams in kills, as she is fifth in the conference with 189 total kills on the season. Emily Feller will need to make an impact for the Skylights, as well, because she is third in the conference with 535 total assists. They will need help on defense from Neubauer who is sixth in the conference with 286 total digs.

Rocky Mountain comes into the weekend with a conference record of 13-3 to hold second in the Frontier Conference. They are riding a two-match winning streak after defeating Montana Western March 19 and 20. However, they did not play last week because both of their matches against Carroll College were canceled.

One Bear that should make an impact on the game is Weiying Wu, who is second in the conference with a hitting percentage of 28.9 percent. There is also Natalie Hilderman who is second in the Frontier with 675 total assists and Ayla Ember who is second in the conference with 470 total digs.

"They're a real confident team," Wagner said. "They're a solid team all around, very few weaknesses, but I'd like to think that we're playing better and can give them some things to think about."

This is the second back-to-back between these teams this season after playing in Billings Feb. 26 and 27. The Bears won both of those matches, 3-0, but Wagner expects his team to play better than the first time they met.

"I think we're pretty rested and hungry," Wagner said. "We're in good shape compared to five weeks ago."

Not only will the Skylights look for a pair of wins this weekend, but they also hope to use the matches to get ready for the postseason. The Frontier Conference Tournament will begin April 6, so the Skylights will need to be playing their best by then to have a chance at making a run.

"These are our playoff games right here," Wagner said. "They're all on paper better than us, and we got to match that level of intensity late in the year because on Tuesday next week, we're in the playoffs."

MSU-N and Rocky Mountain will play at the Armory Gymnasium tonight at 7 p.m. They will then finish their regular season with a match Friday at 7 p.m.

 

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