GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The #15 University of Providence volleyball team defeated Montana State-Northern in the semifinals of the Frontier Conference Playoffs Thursday night to advance to the Frontier Conference Championship Game. The top-seeded Argos (19-2, 18-2) defeated the #6 Skylights (3-19, 2-18) 25-16, 25-21, 25-15.
The Lights got off to a hot start, getting out to a quick 4-1 lead and forcing the Argos to take an early timeout. The squad eventually responded taking the first set 25-16.
"We looked like a team that hadn't played in a tournament game yet," head coach Arunas Duda said. "Northern came out and played really well at first and it took us awhile to catch up."
The rest of the game became the Adysen Burns show. The sophomore from Yakima, Wash. took over offensively to lead the Argos the rest of the way. She finished with 16 kills on a .294 hitting percentage while also being active on the defensive end, recording 11 digs.
"She had a MVP performance tonight," Duda said. "She did a really nice job of hitting the ball high, flat and deep and getting Northern into some trouble. They play a lot of percentage defense and stay pretty shallow which left the back of court pretty open sometimes. She hit those deep seams pretty well and made them reach for a lot. She had a lot of great swings."
Renae Davis also came to play for the Argos, finishing with nine kills on a .348 hitting percentage. Jensyn Turner recorded nine kills on a .292 hitting percentage while Sadie Lott finished with eight kills.
Cydney Finberg-Roberts finished with 41 assists on the evening, along with nine digs. Defensively, the Argos were led by the nation's leader in digs per set Sacha Legros, who finished with 25 digs.
Alana Graves led the Skylights offensively with seven kills. Emily Feller recorded 25 assists while Kaitlin Murdock recorded 13 digs.
With the win, the Argos will advance to the Frontier Conference Championship game Saturday night. They'll face the #18 Rocky Mountain Battlin' Bears, whom the Argos have gone 3-1 with on the season. The Battlin' Bears (17-3, 15-3) gave the Argos their last loss on the season back on Feb. 6. Since then, the Argos have won 17 straight matches.
The Frontier Conference Championship will kick off on Saturday, April 10th at 7 p.m.
