HAVRE -- Montana Tech's volleyball team clinched the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Frontier Conference tournament with a 25-23, 16-25, 25-22, 30-28 win at MSU-Northern.
Brooklynn Hayes collected a career-best 42 digs in the Orediggers' win, and
Talan Dodson led the Montana Tech attack with 17 kills.
Montana Tech (21-6, 16-5 Frontier) jumped out to an 11-6 lead in the opening set and held off a late run by the Skylights.
Halle Moomaw finished off the opener with a kill.
After MSU-Northern (10-17, 6-15) won the second, the Orediggers took momentum back in the third. Dodson picked up four of her match-best 17 kills in the set. With the set tied at 20, Tech put the Skylights on the brink with a 5-1 run, bolstered by kills from Dodson,
Payton Treadwell, and
Sophie Madsen.
The fourth was a classic. Tech jumped out to a 13-9 lead before MSUN ripped off a 5-0 run to take the lead. The teams traded the lead four times until Northern put the Orediggers on the ropes with a Macy Uffelman kill that made it 24-23 in the home team's favor.
Tech forced match point twice before finishing the job, but at 28-28,
Kennedy Oman and Dodson spiked back-to-back kills to seal the match.
Moomaw and Madsen reached double-digit kills with 11 and 10, respectively, while
Rhys Layton set up 31 assists for Montana Tech. Hayes, a junior who recently reached 1,000 career digs, added four aces to her line.
Montana Tech will finish the regular season Saturday at defending conference champion Providence at 2 p.m. Win or lose, the Orediggers will be the second seed in next week's conference tournament by way of holding the tiebreak over Dakota State, which is a game back of Tech in the standings. The Orediggers bested DSU during both regular-season meetings.
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