HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll College volleyball team overcame a slow start to dominate MSU-Northern 25-16, 25-14, 25-19 in the first round of the Frontier Conference Championship at the PE Center.

MSU-Northern built a 7-2 lead to start the first set, but the Saints responded with 6-1 run to tie the set at 8-8. The set was again tied at 10-10, but Carroll closed the set on a 15-6 run to take the first set 25-16.

Carroll took control early in the second set and was never threatened en route to the 25-14 win. 

In the third set, Rayna Pilgeram started the set with a pair of aces to help the Saints build a 5-1 lead, but Northern battled back to take a 7-6 advantage. Carroll regained a 9-8 lead on a kill by Taelyr Krantz kill and never trailed again, cruising to the six-point win. 

Krantz had the best match of her career, notching a team-high 10 kills with just one error for a .429 attack percentage. Pilgeram tallied seven kills with just one error, 33 assists, three service aces, 15 digs and a block. Ayla Carpenter had a match-high 22 digs. 

"Taelyr has grown up a lot as a player," Boyle said. "She watches a lot of film and analyses herself a lot. In the last week, something clicked, and she has grown leaps and bounds in her game, her confidence and her comfort level on the court."

The Saints had eight team blocks, led by five assist blocks from Holly Morehouse. She helped to hold Northern's leading hitter Cassie Krueger to a .026 attack percentage with seven errors. 

"Holly struggled offensively, but she was a wall, defensively," Boyle said. "You absolutely have to counter Krueger and force her out of her comfort zone, or she will kill you. She is so athletic. Holly changed the way she hit tonight."

Carroll advances to the Frontier semifinals where they will face Rocky Mountain. The Saints dropped both matches to Rocky in the regular-season, but Boyle believes that her team is ready for the challenge in the third meeting. 

"In just the last week of practice, the confidence has changed with the team," Boyle said. "You know that every match is sudden-death and that every point matters. You saw the results today of the last six or seven days of practice. You can see it in the way they played that they don't want to stop playing this weekend."

The winner of the semifinal at 1 p.m. faces the winner of the 11 a.m. match between Montana Tech and the University of Providence. All tournament matches are live streamed on the Carroll Youtube channel, and live stats are available via Dakstats.