Bravettes KO Wolfpack; head to state

It was a moment between teammates.

Match point, leading cross-town rival Glacier two games to none in a playoff match, winner claims a berth at next weekend's All Class Volleyball Tournament in Bozeman, Flathead senior outside hitter Britta Thorderson made eye contact with setter Sierra Olszewski.

"I looked at her and I said 'Sierra, this is it … we're done. Let's kill it.' I knew if it came to me, I was going to put it down."

The set did come to Thorderson, nice and high on the outside. She took her best swing and pounded it just inside the back line.

"I just knew I had to put it away. I had to get it done. We decided we would win in three," Thorderson said.

With that kill (Thorderson's eighth of the match), the Bravettes swept visiting Glacier (4-17). Scores were 25-19, 25-18, 25-21.

"It's hard to play your friends. But there is a time you have to play. Now we're friends again," Thorderson said of playing Glacier.

"I'm glad it's over and I'm ready to go. We've got our confidence. Our team is coming together … a lot," Thorderson said.

Three Bravette hitters finished with eight kills each - Thorderson, Kendalyn Habel and Ashlea Vaudt. Habel also had 32 digs and served four aces. Olszewski had 30 assists and Shaina Evans added three blocks.

"It's a relief, I think, more than anything to have this out of the way, so we can focus on where we really wanted to be at the end of the season," Flathead coach Leon Wilcox said.

"We've prepared a lot for this match tonight. When you put that much time and energy into it, it's a little bit of a relief, but it's exciting too," he added.

"We passed a lot better," Wilcox said.

"Our passing and defense were great. They hurt us with their serving last time, so we've really concentrated on our passing. It helped us tonight. We really passed well," he said.

For the Wolfpack, a long offseason of hard work awaits.

"Lose in three in a playoff game, I question how far we came sometimes. That's just the competitive person in me," Wolfpack coach Christy Harkins said.

"I can't argue that they've learned more about volleyball, learned more about competing, and that we fought hard.

"To Flathead's credit, I thought they played very well tonight," she said.

"Sierra did a good job delivering the ball, I thought they dug well … I would have liked to think we could have sustained a little more intensity for longer spurts of time. We could hang in there for two, three points, then we'd give them three or four," she said.

"We haven't developed the intensity we need for a match yet. That's kind of where we were at the beginning of the year. But that's the competitor in me. I'm very rarely satisfied, I guess, " Harkins said.

Emilee Hashley led the Wolfpack with nine kills and two blocks. Lindsea Vaudt added 16 assists and 14 digs and Kendra Bouley had 13 digs.

Flathead took the first game very seriously - it had lost the opener of the last two matchups with Glacier and wanted to get going quickly.

"I wanted our team to be on a roll in the first game," Wilcox said.

"We wanted to come out in that first game and establish ourselves, then let it roll a little bit.

"Start strong, stay strong, finish strong. We just wanted to go out there and play our hearts out," Ashlea Vaudt agreed.

But four Bravette service errors and as many hitting errors kept the Wolfpack in the game.

"Our defense was better, we got a lot of blocks. The one area we just need to clean up is our offense," Wilcox said.

Flathead eventually separated itself on back-to-back kills by Vaudt and Shaina Evans and two straight service aces from Thorderson.

"We weren't quite aggressive in every rotation. We had our moments where we needed to come out hard … there was miscommunication, there was some apprehension, possibly," Wilcox said.

"We didn't really come out at times, especially in game three.

"I thought Glacier played better this time," he said.

"(The Wolfpack) came out with everything because it was their last chance. We approached it like we've got it in the bag and that wasn't the case. Hitters weren't ready for sets, we weren't communicating really well," he said.

He also gave credit for a switch the Wolfpack made - it put Hashley on Habel.

"Christy did a good job of continuously matching (Habel) up with Hashley and Hashley blocked her very effectively," Wilcox said.

He gave credit to the other Flathead hitters - especially Thorderson and Vaudt.

"They really stepped up and took a lot of the offensive responsibility," he said.

The rest of the Class AA field won't shake out until Saturday, but Wilcox believes Billings West will likely be Flathead's first round opponent.

"It's not a bad position to be in, if we can get through West," he said. "We are in the other half of the bracket from Billings Senior (Eastern AA No. 1)."

Flathead defeat Glacier 25-19, 25-18, 25-21

Kills - Glacier 22 (Emilee Hashley 9), Flathead 35 (Kendalyn Habel 8, Britta Thorderson 8, Ashlea Vaudt 8), Assists - Glacier 18 (Lindsea Vaudt 16), Flathead 34 (Sierra Olszewski 30), Blocks - Glacier 2 (Hashley 2), Flathead 8 (Shaina Evans 3, Ashlea Vaudt 2), Digs - Glacier 57 (Lindsea Vaudt 14, Kendra Bouley 13), Flathead 76 (Habel 32), Aces - Glacier 3 (Kayla Smart 1, Chaela Liss 1, Hashley 1), Flathead 10 (Habel 4).