Wolfpack going to state

Glacier trips Hellgate in Western AA playoff match

By DIXIE KNUTSON / The Daily Inter Lake

A year ago, Glacier volleyball coach Christy Harkins sat high in the stands of the Montana State University Fieldhouse in Bozeman and watched the State All-Class Volleyball Tournament.

"I sat there by myself and watched the whole thing. Last year, Brad (assistant coach Holloway) and I went without a team. That's no fun," she said.

Harkins and Holloway will have a sideline view this year.

The Glacier Wolfpack defeated visiting Missoula Hellgate 25-14, 25-14, 26-24 in a Western AA playoff contest Thursday night to earn its first ever berth in the state volleyball tournament.

"It's much more fun to take a team. This year, I get to be down on the floor. That's good," Harkins grinned.

"These girls worked really hard. To be the first-ever Glacier team to go to state, they deserve that. It's a good legacy these seniors are leaving," she added.

"I'm just excited for the school. We had a great student body here. It's good to get the tradition going at Glacier. It's fantastic. It's good to be part of."

"We're all really excited. It's our first time, so a lot of us seniors are just really excited for our legacy and the school," said senior libero Kayla Smart.

"We were all expecting it to be a hard match. We put that in our heads so we wouldn't have it be hard for us. We were expecting the worst, I guess," Smart said.

But "we came out and did what we needed to do," she added.

"We seniors deserve it and so does the rest of the team," agreed middle hitter Emilee Hashley.

"It was a huge team turnout tonight. We needed our passes and we needed Lindsea (Vaudt) to set and we needed our front row," she said.

Glacier outplayed Hellgate in every statistical category. It had 34 kills - Hashley led with 15 - to just 19 for the Knights. The Wolfpack also had 29 assists, 40 digs, seven blocks and nine aces. The Knights had just 11 assists, 26 digs, two blocks and two aces.

Hashley had four blocks to go with her kills, Vaudt added 28 assists and Smart led the Glacier defense with 16 digs.

But it wasn't all easy street for the Wolfpack.

It rolled through the first two sets, but the Knights fought hard in the third.

When Hashley rotated out of the contest, Hellgate rallied to take a 19-13 lead.

"Their defense started coming around there," Harkins said.

"They started touching everything, digging everything up. We knew they had it in them to fight hard and they put in a big challenge," Harkins said.

"We started playing a little hesitant. They played aggressive. They played like the underdog, like a team that should come out and play with nothing to lose. I thought they really showed that in Game 3.

"They said, we're swinging, we don't care. They had some hits go off our blocks, go their way. We started sending free balls, they started swinging," Harkins said.

But Glacier rallied, too.

As soon as Hashley re-entered, she contributed a block and six kills. One kill shot was so hard, it ricocheted off a defender's shoulder.

"It was great to see Emilee come in and take that game over right there.

She was sitting on the bench, chomping at the bit, waiting to go in," Harkins said.

"We rotated around, she's like … 'all right, all right, all right!'

"She goes in and makes a huge difference. Big impact and turns that game around. Good serves at the end. She really did a great job. Really proud of her, really impressed," Harkins said.

"One unsung hero was Ali Armstrong," the coach added.

"She sat on the bench for two games, but when she came in, she was perfect … right on the money. That was key. It gave us some confidence and gave us some passes we could do something with," she said.

"We all knew we had to pick it up," Hashley said.

"Our passes were on, our sets were on. Lindsea knew where to set, she made smart sets," she said.

Hellgate got within two points of winning Game 3, leading 23-19.

"They only needed two points, but we didn't let them have them," Hashley said. "We decided we wanted to go to state in this game, not the next game. We just knew we had to finish it."

Kills: Hellgate 19 (Becca Braack 6), Glacier 34 (Emilee Hashley 15), Assists: Hellgate 11 (Colleen Asby 6), Glacier 29 (Lindsea Vaudt 28), Digs: Hellgate 26 (Lisa Woerlein 6), Glacier 40 (Kayla Smart 16), Blocks: Hellgate 2 (No leader), Glacier 7 (Hashley 4), Aces: Hellgate 2 (Mary Yoder 2), Glacier 9 (Kendra Bouley 6).