Helena spikers down Bravettes in 5

How did that happen?

The Flathead Bravettes were on fire in the early going of Tuesday's Western AA volleyball match against visiting Helena High.

With a 25-5 win in the first game, it appeared the Bravettes had the match well in hand.

But then Flathead (3-4) dropped the next two games.

It fought back, claimed the fourth game, but faltered at the end. The Bengals (3-3) made the return trip to Helena with a 5-25, 25-23, 25-19, 19-25, 15-7 victory.

"I think we got severely overconfident," said Flathead head coach Leon Wilcox.

The first game went quickly and easily in Flathead's favor.

Bravette outside hitter Kendalyn Habel got the serve with Flathead leading 6-3. She jump served 10 straight points, including seven aces in a row, and the serve didn't go back to the Bengals' until Flathead led 16-4.

"We played almost error-free volleyball in thefirst game, led by Kendalyn's seven aces in a row. But besides her aces, we just played tremendous volleyball. It was outstanding," the coach said.

When the Bravettes did finally lose serve, they got it right back on a Britta Thorderson dig that landed on the line.

But Helena didn't go away, despite the first-game shellacking.

The Bengals stopped making mistakes in the second game - and the Bravettes began to make them.

"I think we got so overconfident and so full of ourselves that we expected Helena to give us the same kind of reaction they did in the first game and when it didn't happen, we didn't step up," he said.

"So we spent the rest of the match with our backs against the wall, not really fighting like we should have," he added.

The Bravettes had to win the fourth game - and they came through with a couple of runs to build - and keep - a six-point lead.

"They played a lot better in the fourth game," the coach said.

But something happened between the fourth and fifth games.

"It was less than good. That's the best way I can put it. We watched so many balls hit the floor. I seemed like people were waiting for somebody else to step up," he said.

He hadn't seen the Bravettes watch a served ball hit the floor all season long.

In the fifth game, "we watched two in a row. It's indicative of where we were mentally," he said.

It seemed Helena had a 5-1 lead almost before the game started. And it took only a few minutes for the Bengals to go up 13-3.

Flathead fought to the final kill, but that much of a deficit was too much in a game to 15.

"At first, the loss felt overwhelming to them," Wilcox said.

"In retrospect they can see what happened. Hopefully, they can learn from that and not let it happen again."

Helena def. Flathead 5-25, 25-23, 25-19, 19-25, 15-7

Kills - Helena 36 (Jordyn Pillatzke 11), Flathead 35 (Kendalyn Habel 13, Ashlea Vaudt 6, Kaylyn Heaton 6); Assists - Helena 34 (Kelsey Johnson 31), Flathead 30 (Tybel Hall 13, Sierra Olszewski 11); Blocks - Helena 15 (Pillatzke 4), Flathead 11 (Shaina Evans 5, Ali Christensen 4); Digs - Helena 35 (Kelsey Williams 8), Flathead 58 (Habel 18, Britta Thorderson 16); Aces - Helena 8 (Pillatzke 3), Flathead 21 (Habel 10).