HELENA -- It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish. That sentiment was proven true yet again on Tuesday when the MSU-Northern Skylights knocked the Carroll College Fighting Saints out of the Frontier Conference volleyball tournament with a five-set win at the P.E. Center.
The Skylights, a team with only two wins to their credit in the regular season, took the first two sets by scores of 26-24, riding high behind 12 of Rylee Burmester’s match-high 18 kills.
Though they lost the first two sets, the Fighting Saints refused to give an inch and made their case to advance to the semifinals of the Frontier Conference tournament by snagging the next two sets 25-14 and 25-19.
But, again, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
The Skylights started off the fifth and final set of the night jumping out to a 4-0 lead before the Fighting Saints regained their footing and took the lead back at 8-7 on a failed attack by Northern’s Elissa Lind. The two teams battled back and forth in the final set as their seasons hung in the balance, but it would be Northern that came out on top after Abigail Ellison buried a dagger in the back right corner of Carroll territory to come out on top, 15-13.
The Northern Skylights now face a stiff test in the next round of the Frontier Conference tournament when they head to Great Falls to take on the top-seeded Providence Argos on Thursday.
