HELENA — Providence will be the No. 1 seed for the Frontier Conference volleyball tournament, which will run Nov. 13-15 at the Carroll College PE Center.
The Argos (28-2) won the outright regular-season title for the second consecutive year with 21-1 Frontier Conference record. They will receive the first of the two Frontier’s automatic bids to the NAIA women’s volleyball national tournament opening round after winning the regular-season title.
The second Frontier Conference automatic bid will go to the tournament champion. In the event if the Argos win the postseason tournament, the second automatic bid will be awarded to the tournament’s runner-up. The opening round of the NAIA tournament is Nov. 22.
Bellevue (Neb.) is the No. 2 seed for the tournament with a 24-3 overall record and 20-2 mark in Frontier play. MSU-Northern (17-11 overall, 15-7 Frontier) is the third seed.
There was a three-way tie for fourth place in the Frontier standings with Dakota State (S.D.), Montana Tech and Carroll with each recording a 12-10 conference record. The teams each went 2-2 against each other, with the Trojans earning the tiebreaker over the Orediggers and Fighting Saints with 10 sets won to secure the No. 4 seed for the postseason tournament.
Montana Tech owned the tiebreaker over Carroll via set points won. Both teams split their two conference meetings in 3-0 sweeps, with the Orediggers scoring 141 total points to the Saints' 131 total points in those six sets. Tech will be the No. 5 seed, followed by Carroll at No. 6.
Valley City State (N.D.) and Montana Western were tied for seventh in the Frontier Conference standings with 11-11 league records. The Vikings won the tiebreaker over the Bulldogs and will be the No. 7 seed, while Western will be the No. 8 seed.
Dickinson State (N.D.), Mayville State (N.D.), Bismarck State (N.D.) and Rocky Mountain will not be playing in the conference tournament and ended their seasons Saturday.
The schedule for the Frontier Conference tournament is below.
Quarterfinals
Thursday, Nov. 13
Match 1: No. 8 Montana Western vs. No. 1 Providence, 12 p.m.
Match 2: No. 5 Montana Tech vs. No. 4 Dakota State (S.D.), 2:30 p.m.
Match 3: No. 7 Valley City State (N.D.) vs. No. 2 Bellevue (Neb.), 5 p.m.
Match 4: No. 6 Carroll vs. No. 3 MSU-Northern, 7:30 p.m.
Semifinals
Friday, Nov. 14
Match 5: Match 1 winner vs. Match 2 winner, 5 p.m.
Match 6: Match 4 winner vs. Match 3 winner, 7:30 p.m.
Championship
Saturday, Nov. 15
Match 7: Match 5 winner vs. Match 6 winner, 7 p.m.
