Rivalry win for FHS

Don't let them fool you.

Flathead-Glacier is a rivalry.

The evidence was loud and clear at Saturday's inaugural Bravette/Wolfpack volleyball match.

Before a full - and boisterous - house, Flathead (3-3) downed Glacier (1-4) in five action-packed games. Scores were: 16-25, 26-24, 24-26, 25-22, 15-13.

"It was on-the-edge-of-your-seat kind of volleyball the whole time. The crowds were obnoxious. They were great! It made it a really rowdy house. We look forward to doing it again at Glacier," said Flathead coach Leon Wilcox.

"That's what I wanted," said Glacier coach Christy Harkins.

"Thanks to everybody who voted for two schools. It's nice to have a rivalry.

"From the start of the freshman matches, you could tell it was going to be intense in here.

"We've never had that big of a crowd - maybe once on a senior night in a good year … that was amazing. It was fantastic," she said.

"It was fun," Wilcox agreed.

"It was very intense. I feel exhausted," he said.

"And I was right. Glacier came ready to play," he added.

"It almost felt like it was a nuetral court, even though this is our gym," he said.

"All those kids played in this gym, they grew up in this gym. Their crowd was probably a little bit bigger than our crowd. As far as home court advantage, we didn't have one, I didn't feel," he said.

It was Flathead who felt the pressure in the early going.

The Bravettes endured a mistake-filled first game.

The hitting errors and the illegal hits far outnumbered the Flathead kills - and Glacier waltzed to a 25-16 win.

"We came out really slow. I don't think all of us showed up to play," said senior outside hitter Kendalyn Habel.

"But fight with what you got. That's all you can do … and swing away. Whenever we were timid or didn't try our hardest, it didn't work for us," she said.

Habel definitely gave her best effort - she led all hitters with 21 kills.

Glacier's Emilee Hashley was next with 19 kills and 10 blocks.

Other leaders were Flathead's Steph Elliott with 25 digs, Tybel Hall with 20 assists and Sierra Olszewski with five aces.

On the Glacier side, Lindsea Vaudt had 27 assists and six aces and Kayla Smart added 16 digs.

"There's some psychological road block going on there when we play Glacier," Wilcox said.

"It's too much in our heads. I think there's too much expectation on themselves. They don't need to do that. They just need to play, but they did put pressure on themselves. Glacier came ready and they really stuck it to us," Wilcox said.

"The first game, we had a couple jitters we worked through," said Flathead middle hitter Shaina Evans.

"I think (the Wolfpack) really brought their 'A' game and that really pushed us even further. We had to play every ball like it was the last one," Evans said.

It was a wake-up call, agreed Flathead outside hitter Britta Thorderson.

"We realized we had to fight," she said. "We just turned out slow and we realized they were coming out hard and strong - and we knew they would, but we didn't realize it enough. Once we did, we stepped it up," she said.

Flathead had to rally in the second game as well. The Bravettes trailed 19-12 before they pulled out three straight kills and served an ace. Two Glacier hitting errors helped tie the game at 20-all.

The teams trades points all the way through 24-all.

An Ashlea Vaudt tip and a Habel kill gave Flathead the win.

But Glacier wasn't ready to bow down.

It rallied from a 21-24 third-game deficit to win 26-24 and was tied with Flathead at 21-all in the fourth game.

"We have to avoid those lulls. Our serving kind of took a little bit of our momentum away," Wilcox said.

"We'd go on runs of three or four points, then we'd miss a serve, which kind of just throws momentum under the net. You can't do that," he said.

The fifth game was simply a continuation of what the fans had already seen.

Neither team gained more than a two-point advantage. Flathead led 12-10 when Glacier sent a kill attempt long, but gave that advantage right back. The Wolfpack got a tip to fall, then Flathead was whistled for a double hit.

The final two points came down to a Habel kill and the match ended on a Thorderson tip.

"To our credit we finished strong," Wilcox said. "We didn't let it get to us. We didn't crack.

"I'm very proud of my girls," Harkins said.

"They all fought hard, all the way through to the end. Two points in Game 2, two points in Game 5 - it could have gone either way.

"I feel really good about our progress and where we are. Great fight by both teams," she said.

Flathead def. Glacier 16-25, 26-24, 24-26, 25-22, 15-13

Kills - Glacier -38 (Emilee Hashley 19), Flathead 51 (Kendalyn Habel 21), Assists - Glacier 27 (Lindsea Vaudt 27), Flathead 42 (Tybel Hall 20), Digs - Glacier 72 (Kayla Smart 16), Flathead 76 (Steph Elliott 25), Blocks - Glacier 13 (Hashley 10), Flathead 5 (Britta Thorderson 3, Ali Christensen 3), Aces - Glacier 12 (Vaudt 6), Flathead 13 (Sierra Olszewski 5).