Northern volleyball competes in alumni scrimmage

As the season soon approaches, the Montana State University-Northern volleyball team will be looking to get itself ready. To get themselves started, the Skylights began practicing this past week and this past Saturday, the Skylights competed in the MSU-N alumni scrimmage.

In the scrimmage, the Skylights got the better of the alumni as they won all five sets on the day. While it was just a scrimmage, MSU-N head coach Jerry Wagner liked what he saw from his team.

"I thought we did a lot of good things and the personality that we want to play with is there," Wagner said. "The thing I'm most excited about with this group is the enthusiasm. Everybody's going to figure into things this year and I'm liking where we're starting."

The Skylights won most of their sets by wide margins. They got off to a strong start as they dominated the first set. Even though the alumni played better in the second set, the Skylights played well enough to win that set. They then won the last three sets by at least 10 points each.

With the scrimmage, the Skylights finally got some game-like action this fall. Not only will this help the returning players get back into their rhythm, Wagner believes it will help the four freshmen on the team as well.

"It got out all the jitters. We played a veteran group and we kept them on their heels," Wagner said. "These are invaluable opportunities."

Earlier in the week before their scrimmage, the Skylights began their fall camp. They only took part in four practices through the week but Wagner believes his players have come into camp with the right mindset.

"It's all about our attitude and our effort and if those things are in place, we can accomplish anything," Wagner said.

The Skylights will begin their fall camp in earnest this week. As they head into the thick of their camp, Wagner looks forward to setting things in motion for what the Skylights want to accomplish this fall.

"Now we're going to be putting in the repetition behind some things that we want to accomplish," Wagner said. "There's no question that in the next eight days of practice we have, we'll be ready for that next scrimmage and our first match on the 18 so we got plenty of time if we use it well."