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The Montana State University-Northern volleyball team will begin their fall camp today as they prepare for the 2021 fall season. Before the Skylights begin their first practice of the season together, they will have already played as a team, as they played in the alumni match on Saturday night at the Armory Gymnasium. Even though the Skylights lost to the MSU-N alumni, 3-2, MSU-N head coach Jerry Wagner believed the match showed some of the Skylights' promise this season.
"I see a lot of things that I like. We got a lot of kids that are capable of doing it," Wagner said. "Every time you play an alumni team, they know how to play. They're winners, and that group right there, a lot of winning going on, a lot of success and my hats off to them, they gave us everything we wanted to know."
The alumni match was a good opportunity to get the Skylights' newcomers game-like experience. The Skylights will have four new freshmen on their roster this fall: Olivia Isakson, Alyssa Pretty Weasel, Maddison Underdal and Emily Adkins. The other newcomer this fall will be Anastasija Dragovic, who transferred from Laramie County Community College. After one match, Wagner liked what he saw from his newcomers.
"Everybody's capable of doing what they came here to do. We were playing kids that haven't played in a college atmosphere against a veteran team, and they applied themselves and they played really well," Wagner said. "There's just nothing but things to gain out of something like this. Got the feet wet. You're going to make mistakes, and now we go into practice with a fresh slate and we're going to work on all of those things."
MSU-N's veterans also got playing time on Saturday night, such as their seniors Elissa Lind, Shania Neubauer and Rylee Burmester. Other key contributors from last season who played on Saturday night included Emily Feller, Hailie George and Abigail Ellison. While he is still trying to figure out everybody's role on the roster, Wagner is happy that this roster got to play on the court together for the first time.
"We haven't spent any time together," Wagner said. "I've got a bunch of capable players and no determinations have been made on anything. That's the only way we're going to have everybody in the mix, pushing each other to go hard."
The Skylights' opponent on Saturday night was made up of several alumni from the MSU-N volleyball program. The alumni the Skylights played against included Haley Donovan, Abby Nicolas, Cassie Krueger, Holly Young, Victoria Polo, Soni Nagy, Sierra Diehl, Tasha Naillon and Senna Frankino.
The match was a back-and-forth affair throughout the night. The first set started out competitive as both teams fought to an 11-11 tie. The alumni then showed their experience as they built themselves a 22-17 lead. However, the Skylights scored six straight points to take a 23-22 lead. The Alumni answered right back by going on a 4-1 run to win the first set, 26-24, to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The second set started out competitive again with the teams battling it out to a 7-7 tie. This time it was the Skylights that went on a run to take control as they got a 21-14 lead. The alumni responded by cutting the lead to three points but MSU-N held on to win the second set, 25-20, and tie the match, 1-1.
The Skylights kept their momentum going into the third set which they won 25-18 to take a 2-1 lead in the match. However, the fourth set went to the alumni as they led the entire way for a 25-21 victory to tie the match. The last set of the night came down to the final moments. After the Skylights took a 14-13 lead with a chance for match point, the alumni scored three straight points to win the set, 16-14, and win the match.
With the alumni match now over, the MSU-N volleyball program will begin their fall camp today. The Skylights hope to improve on their spring season where they went 3-19 and 2-18 in the Frontier Conference. They also hope to carry over the momentum from a victory over Carroll College in the Frontier Conference postseason into the fall. Wagner hopes the experience of his veterans and his newcomers will help improve the program and after playing a match, he now has something to build off.
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