Whitefish spikers battle back to down Libby
WHITEFISH - There was no yelling. No one was chewed out. No one even raised a voice.
But there was some talking going on between games at Saturday's Northwestern A volleyball match - and Whitefish volleyball coach Jackie Fuller was doing just about all of it.
The Bulldogs trailed conference rival Libby 2-1 and had just lost Game 3, 25-15.
The looks in the faces in the Whitefish huddle were of the 'deer in the headlights' variety.
"We were scared. Not together," junior middle hitter Tracy Schwada said.
"We were playing not together. We were hiding," she added. "We were playing like we didn't want to lose.
"(Libby) really wanted to come out and beat us. They always are really tough. It's always exciting and intense."
First, Fuller had the Bulldogs spread out away from their bench.
That was to "see what it felt like to be apart," junior setter Mandy McFadden explained later.
Then the coach pulled the team in tight.
"We weren't even shoulder to shoulder. We were tighter," McFadden said.
"They were just so separate," Fuller explained afterward. "We couldn't make a bigger circle.
"'This isn't going to work. We've got to be together with this,'" she told the team.
"We pulled them in tighter and explained that together is stronger."
"I just knew if they started to believe in each other they would be OK, they would come around."
They did.
Whitefish won the fourth game and carried that momentum to a 21-25, 25-20, 15-25, 28-26, 15-11 victory.
With that, the Bulldogs (8-0) laid claim to a season sweep of the Loggers (5-3) and maintained their top spot in Northwestern A conference. Libby slipped to third when Bigfork (5-2) knocked off Ronan.
By the time match point rolled around, Schwada was screaming for the ball and McFadden was more than happy to set her up.
"I was so pumped up," Schwada said. "If she gave me that set, I wanted to put it away."
"I could hear Tracy yelling. I knew she was screaming so loud because she knew she wanted to put it down," McFadden said.
The pass from the back row "was perfect. I don't think I had to move," the setter said.
"I saw a huge block on my right," Schwada recalled. "So I cut it to the left."
The ball ticked off the Libby block and fell to the floor.
"That was so exhilarating. It was perfect," Schwada said.
"They turned it around," Fuller said. "That's a good start for us right now. We'll be able to build a lot off this." Libby, meanwhile, was left to ponder what might have been.
The Loggers had everything clicking in that third game.
"(Libby's) Nicole Rowan came to play," Fuller said. "Erin Bothman is a good setter. She got the ball exactly where they needed it."
The Logger middle hitters were also doing a good job of tipping the ball into the middle of the Whitefish court.
The result was an easy Logger victory in that game.
"I think all the kids played with a lot of heart," Logger coach Cindy Ostrem-Johnston said.
"I was disappointed with the heart and hustle in Bigfork (earlier). We talked about that and I thought we came back well in this match.
"I felt a lot better about how the kids played.
"I don't think the kids or myself gave up until there was 15 on the board," she said.
"We made some mental mistakes that hurt us. We just made more mistakes than they did.
"We maybe lost the edge … between the fourth and fifth games, maybe we started getting a little tentative.
"We kind of lost our ball control. We gave them opportunities to set up their offense - and they took advantage of it," Ostrem-Johnston added.
Stats
Kills - Libby 51 (Nicole Rowan 24, Rose Young 10), Whitefish 44 (Tracy Schwada 19, Ashley Ferda 9), Assists - Libby 47 (Erin Bothman 45), Whitefish 41 (Mandy McFadden 37), Blocks - Libby 6 (Young 3, Bothman 2), Whitefish 6 (Schwada 5), Digs - Libby 59 (Sam Schultz 25, Rowan 17), Whitefish 65 (A. Ferda 12) Aces - Libby 17 (Bothman 5, Rowan 4), Whitefish 12 (Jessie Conners 3, McFadden 3, Sabrya Martin 3).