Fergus foils Loggers in 3

Libby suffers first tourney loss in state semifinals

By DIXIE KNUTSON/The Daily Inter Lake

BOZEMAN °(TM)Mercifully, it was quick.

It took the defending state champion Fergus Golden Eagles exactly 54 minutes to defeat the Libby Loggers in the Class A semifinal Friday night at the All-Class State Volleyball Tournament.

Scores were 25-8, 25-13, 25-12.

The Loggers, who still can do no worse than third, will play Miles City at 11 a.m. today. The winner of that match advances to the 3 p.m. championship match, where Fergus awaits.

Because Fergus has yet to lose in this tournament, there could be a second championship match at 5 p.m.

°()()I thought we looked scared and frustrated tonight. We did not play as a team. We didn°Ot play the way we are capable of playing,°+/- said Libby coach Cindy Ostrem-Johnston.

°()()It was hard on the heart, in a different way (than the excitement of winning two 5-set matches on opening day). It was hard to see them play so bad. It was sad after as hard as we fought yesterday.

°()()Lewistown is a very solid team. They take advantage of every mistake you make and they don°Ot make a lot of mistakes,°+/- she said.

°()()I told (the Loggers) during a timeout, if I can see the frustration and scaredness on your faces, everybody else can.

°()()We let them get to us. We talked about it going in … just go out, play ball, play fearless. Respect them, but don°Ot fear them,°+/- she said.

Instead, the first game was over in the blink of an eye.

Fergus rolled to a 6-1 lead, and built from there.

°()()We made way too many unforced errors. We were serving balls out, hitting balls out,°+/- the coach said.

°()()We just didn°Ot put it together tonight and (the Eagles) just kept playing their game. They played very well. They weren°Ot letting us bother them,°+/- Ostrem-Johnston said with a wry smile.

She hoped after the 25-8 shellacking in the first game, that Fergus might relax.

°()()Maybe we could get after it, try to catch them off guard, thinking they were going to take it easy, but we never pushed them,°+/- she said.

The second game was a little better. The Loggers were within 7-5 in the early going.

But nothing came easily.

If they won a rally to reclaim the serve, they inevitably put that serve into the net or out of bounds °(TM) or made a hitting error. And every free ball they gave the Eagles came back at Libby hard.

Fergus led in every statistical category. It had more kills, assists, blocks and served more aces.

Libby had just 19 kills, 16 assists, and three blocks. It had 55 kills, 52 assists and nine blocks in its Thursday win over Billings Central.

Jackie Mee led the Loggers with 13 kills, Jordan Refsland had 10 assists and Nichole Newman had two blocks.

°()()The beauty of a true double-elimination tournament is we°Ove got a shot to come back in and play in the championship. We°Ove got a shot to win the whole thing, but we°Ove got to believe we can do it,°+/- Ostrem-Johnston said.

Kills: Fergus 30 (Shandy Songer 8, LeAnn Quinlan 7, Katie Monger 6), Libby 19 (Jackie Mee 13), Assists: Fergus 26 (Brinna Boettger 23), Libby 16 (Jordan Refsland 10, Evi Cernick 4), Blocks: Fergus 9 (Songer 5, Arielle Allen 3), Libby 3 (Nichole Newman 2, Alex Kulbeck 1), Digs: Fergus 39 (Cassie Byerly 9, LeAnn Quinlan 9, Boettger 6, Libby (Did not report); Aces: Fergus 6 (Cassie Byerly 2), Libby 1 (Devon Hoyer).

Miles City 3, Polson 0

Day 2 of the tournament was just as harsh for Polson as opening day °(TM) losing in three. This time Miles City delivered the bad news °(TM) 25-16, 25-14, 25-16.

Polson lost to Fergus on Thursday in three games.

The Pirates finished season play with a 12-8 mark.

Breanne Kelley lead Polson in aces, one, kills, eight, and blocks, one. She was second in digs, 12.

Teammate Staci Benson had 13 digs.

Miles City °(TM) Aces 7: Jessica Cramer 3. Kills 38: Kalli Durham 10. Assists 37: Alexia Mader 28. Blocks 11: Anna Magnuson 4. Digs 62: Durham 18, Tiffani Collins 14, Shelby Toennis 10, Mader 10.

Polson °(TM) Aces 1: Breanne Kelley. Kills 26: Kelley 8. Assists 23: Kayla Duford 20. Blocks 3: Nicole Davey, Kelley, Lori Havlovick. Digs 64: Staci Benson 13, Kelley 12.