Whitefish eliminates Libby

Both advance to face each other

BOZEMAN - The Libby Loggers and Whitefish Bulldogs played one another six times this past volleyball season.

The Loggers won five of those. But on Friday night, the Bulldogs finally got their due.

Whitefish defeated Libby 26-24, 26-24, 25-15 to advance to today's trophy round at the All Class State Volleyball tournament.

The Loggers finished in fourth place.

"I really didn't want to play Whitefish again," said Libby coach Cindy Ostrem-Johnston. "We beat them five times during the year. They pushed us to five games the last three times we played them. It's tough to keep repeating (those wins) against a good team. I just wish it could have been one of those other times we came up short.

"Right now, I'm just exhausted. Dried up. I couldn't even cry in the locker room. My heart hurts. But we had an incredible season - can't take that away from us. I wish we could have showed our best in the last two matches."

With the victory, Whitefish earns a second shot at Havre at 11 a.m. today.

"We are in the trophies, but we're not done yet. We face Havre again. They're a great ball club, but we'll be ready to go," said Whitefish coach Jackie Fuller.

"We're going to come out with all the guns blaring," promised outside hitter Brielle Menegazzi.

Both Whitefish and Libby won loser-out matches earlier in the day.

Whitefish defeated Anaconda 25-17, 21-25, 26-24, 25-22, while Libby downed Miles City 28-26, 16-25, 25-10, 25-11.

The Bulldogs had a team meeting after their win over Anaconda.

They decided they needed to switch things up a bit.

"We needed emotion, excitement, enthusiasm. We haven't been playing with that all weekend," Fuller said. "We said in order for us to continue to go on, we needed to play together as one and we needed to understand each other and each other's traits.

"When they came out here, you could see my bench was on fire. My bench then lit up my court.

"We had way more emotion today. We came together as a team at the last minute," agreed Menegazzi. "We just talked. We decided this is what we wanted and we're going to go get it. Libby's a very great team, well-coached, great players."

Menegazzi had 15 kills, three blocks and 11 digs and Ashley Ferda added 14 kills and 19 digs.

Fuller gave credit to middle Kate Klundt and Almira Sekerci.

"Kate Klundt came out, was ecstatic. She did a wonderful job for us," the coach said. "Almira sat back there and played some great defense. She just kept digging stuff up."

Laice Dedrick paced Libby with 12 kills and 15 digs. Jackie Mee added eight kills and two blocks and Megan Wedel had 16 digs.

Whitefish 3, Anaconda 1

Brielle Menegazzi had 23 kills, three blocks and 35 digs and Ashley Ferda added 20 kills and 49 digs as the Bulldogs downed Anaconda 25-17, 21-25, 26-24, 25-22 in an afternoon match.

Hailey Farmin contributed 49 assists to the Bulldog effort.

Sharina Friez led the Copperheads with 13 kills, two blocks and two service aces.

Whitefish def. Anaconda

25-17, 21-25, 26-24, 25-22

Kills - Whitefish 55 (Brielle Menegazzi 23, Ashley Ferda 20), Anaconda 37 (Sharina Friez 13, Korey Krum 12, McCall Flynn 12), Assists - Whitefish 52 (Hailey Farmin 49), Anaconda 35 (Kirsten King 32), Blocks - Whitefish 12 (Menegazzi 3, Dana Labuda 3), Anaconda 2 (Friez 2), Digs - Whitefish 125 (Ferda 49, Menegazzi 35), Anaconda 59 (Torry Hill 24, Maggie Green 22, Kylie Vanthier 13), Aces - Whitefish 5 (Adele Fauntleroy), Anaconda 3 (Friez 2, King 1).

Libby 3, Miles City 1

Laice Dedrick had 15 kills and 17 digs and Brooke Hageness added 14 kills and 23 digs as Libby defeated the Cowgirls, 28-26, 16-25, 25-10, 25-11.

Libby def. Miles City

28-26, 16-25, 25-10, 25-11

Kills - Libby 45 (Laice Dedrick 15, Brook Hageness 14). Assists - Libby 39 (Shelby Barton 29), Blocks - Libby 6 (Barton 3, Jackie Mee 3), Digs - Libby 75 (Hageness 23, Megan Wedel 18, Dedrick 17), Aces - Libby 9 (Nichole Newman 8). Miles City did not turn in stats.

Whitefish def. Libby

26-24, 26-24, 25-15

Kills - Libby 36 (Dedrick 12, Mee 8, Hageness 7), Whitefish 32 (Brielle Menegazzi 15, Ashley Ferda 12), Assists - Libby 32 (Barton 30), Whitefish 28 (Hailey Farmin 27), Blocks - Libby 2 (Mee 1, Barton 1), Whitefish 6 (Menegazzi 2), Digs - Libby 63 (Wedel 16, Dedrick 15), Whitefish 67 (Ferda 19, Menegazzi 11, Almira Sekeri 11).