Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3 | Box Score 4 Butte, Mont.- The MSU-Northern Skylight volleyball program started their season off with four matches in two days at the third annual Big Sky Volleyball Challenge held at the Civic Center in downtown Butte. 

In their first game of the weekend, the Skylights took on the Warriors from Corban University.  Northern lost in four sets, but managed to hit an impressive .643 in the first set to take an early lead.  Corban gained momentum in the next set to win 31-29 in a back-and-forth battle.  From there, the Warriors cruised to win the third and fourth set. Corban finished hitting .304 and held the Skylights to just .261 in hitting overall.
Northern was led in kills by freshman Timi Severson (14) and senior Cydney Auzenne (13).  Senior setter Emily Russell posted 17 assists and 14 digs. 
Lauren Condon and Amber Parker each tallied 13 kills while Madison McLain notched 23 assists.
 

MSUN	25	29	14	18
CU	20	31	25	25

Northern dropped their second match of the day to talented No.8 Eastern Oregon in three straight sets. 
The Skylights managed to keep things close midway through the first set by playing within one point of the Mountaineers (9-10), but EOU scored 10 of the next 11 points to gain control of the set. 
The second set was much of the same, EOU getting out to a big lead and going on a 9 point run to put the set out of reach. The Mountaineers held the Skylights to scoring just 14 points in the stanza.  Northern came out strong in the third set to take a 11-6 lead, but EOU bounced back to go on another scoring run of 10-2 to finish the set off 25-20.
 
Leading the offensive end of play was junior Cassie Krueger with 8 kills and senior Emily Russell with 21 assists.  Freshman Hannah Amtmann collected nine digs.
 

MSUN	16	14	20
EOU	25	25	25

On their second day of competition, the Skylights found success on the court.  They took on Evergreen State College in an exciting four set match and came out victorious.  Northern started off strong by claiming set one and battled back from a 20-17 disadvantage in the second set to win 26-24.  ESC claimed the third set, but the Skylights proved their resiliency by surging back from being down 20-15 to win another close set that finished off the match.
 
Freshman Timi Severson would again lead the Skylights in kills with 16 as senior Emily Russell delivered 42 assists in the win.  Freshman Hannah Amtmann continued her solid play on defense with 17 digs.
 
Leaders for Evergreen State were Jorden Porter with 17 kills and Kylie Kytan with 49 assists of her own.
 

MSUN	25	26	23	25
ESC	16	24	25	23

 MSU-Northern closed out the Big Sky Challenge against Northwest University.  The Skylights were swept in three and were held to hitting just .077 as the Eagles totaled 10 blocks.  NU hit an overall .330 and scored off of seven service aces. 
Freshman Timi Severson led the Skylights with nine kills, hitting .538 through the three sets and senior Emily Russell tallied 24 assists to go along with her 14 digs.
 

MSUN	18	20	10
NU	25	25	25