Frustrating win for Whitefish

WHITEFISH - Ugly. Not pretty. Definitely less than a thing of beauty.

But the Whitefish Bulldogs still chalked up Saturday's nonconference volleyball match with the Corvallis Blue Devils as a victory.

Scores were 25-19, 25-22, 25-21.

"I thought we were flat. We had no enthusiasm," Whitefish head coach Jackie Fuller said of the Bulldogs.

"I haven't seen us miss that many serves (11) in a long time," she said.

"We didn't come out with enough excitement," agreed senior outside hitter Erin Greiner.

"Corvallis was getting pumped up about every little thing and it got to us a little bit," she added.

Those missed serves - and the fact that Corvallis seemed to dig up every kill attempt - led to a bit of frustration on the part of the Bulldogs.

"We just weren't clicking," Fuller said.

Corvallis (4-2, 4-4) seemed to have an answer for everything the Bulldogs hit at them.

And when the Blue Devils didn't have the answer, Whitefish (10-0, 8-0) seemed to give them one - a missed serve, a kill attempt blasted into the net or out of bounds, or a player in the net.

Whitefish did take the early lead in the first game and it did hold it, but never built it into a comfortable margin.

The largest separation was 21-15.

The Bulldogs led 12-6 in the second game, but saw their lead evaporate amidst inspired Blue Devil play and their own errors.

"It was really sloppy," Greiner said.

She admitted there were times in the early going when the Blue Devils surprised Whitefish by getting the ball back over the net .

"We just didn't expect it to come back. It did and it caught us off guard," Greiner said.

Fuller told the Bulldogs "if we got a rally going, we had to step up and win that thing."

The longer rallies seemed to favor the Blue Devils.

"They started grabbing the momentum," she said.

"But our girls got that look in their eyes. They weren't going to let it go."

"We all kind of told each other we needed to do this," Greiner explained.

"We just buckled down."

"I am impressed. We never gave up," Fuller added.

"Well-fought match by both teams. It just came down to perseverance and hanging in there."

"It shows us we can persevere," Greiner said.

"It was good for us to play them."

But the Bulldogs will be taking a day off, the coach said.

"They need to take a break," Fuller said of the Bulldogs. Today "nothing volleyball is even discussed. We'll come in Monday ready to go."

Whitefish def. Corvallis 25-19, 25-22, 25-21

Kills - Corvallis 19 (Marin Peterson 10, Bonnie Burke 3), Whitefish 35 (Ashley Ferda 11, Erin Greiner 9), Assists - Corvallis 16 (Adrienne Bull 13), Whitefish 32 (Mandy McFadden 30), Blocks - Corvallis 5 (Peterson 2, Tisha Smith 2), Whitefish 8 (Tracy Schwada 4), Digs - Corvallis 32 (Smith 12, Bull 7), Whitefish 73 (Jessie Conners 17), Aces - Corvallis 7 (Rachel Carney 2, Kasie Condor 1), Whitefish 7 (A.Ferda 4).