Whitefish overcomes pesky Ronan

Bulldogs pushed to four games with Maidens

WHITEFISH -A win is a win and the Whitefish Lady Bulldog volleyball team will take it.

But the Bulldogs endured a two hour nail-biter on Thursday night.

Whitefish (4-2), behind Shannon Kalbfleisch's 16 kills, prevailed in four games over Northwestern A conference foe Ronan. Scores were 25-19, 25-20, 26-28, 25-22.

The best thing Whitefish coach Jackie Fuller saw?

The frustration on the faces of the Bulldogs after they won.

"They won, but they're frustrated. They didn't play that well.

"It was a win, but they're not happy," Fuller said.

"We didn't pass the ball well enough. We've got to pass the ball well in order to be successful," she said.

"I'm proud of Shannon Kalbfleisch. I thought she did a nice job offensively for us. She came up with some critical, critical kills that we needed to turn things around," Fuller said.

"Ronan is a good ballclub. They've got some offensive threats up there. They came at us swinging. They did a wonderful job. I'm impressed. They've got a great offense. That is a good ball club," Fuller said.

"We gave them a lot of free balls and with an offense like that, you're going to get it right back at you," Fuller said.

"(Ronan coach Shae Hutchinson) has taken this ballclub to another level. I'm really proud of her for that and I'm really proud of these Ronan girls. They come out and they fight hard," Fuller added.

"(Hutchinson has) got that thing going."

All four games were nip-and-tuck.

Whitefish built a 21-13 first set lead, then watched the Maidens rally within three points before finally closing it out.

The story was the same in the second set - big Bulldog lead, huge Ronan rally.

The story was reversed in set three.

This time it was Ronan building an eight-point advantage and Whitefish rallying to first tie the set, and then getting within a point of closing out the match.

"I thought they fought really hard in Game 3 to come back. But yet now you've come back, you've got to get over the hump," Fuller said.

Kaylee Larson's kill saved match point for the Maidens and setter Kelsey Swalling dumped the ball to preserve the set.

Game 4 was all Whitefish in the early going as Adele FauntLeroy served the Bulldogs to an 8-0 lead.

But again, the Maidens clawed their way back in.

"We got a little tight … and we can't be tight when we play this game. They need to learn to play to win. Just relax and play to win," Fuller said.

"We got a big lead in Game 4, but then we started sitting back and we didn't pass the ball," Fuller said.

"We went four points down, not on our hitting errors or on offensive mistakes, but on our passing mistakes. Serve receive is something we've got to fine tune. We've got to believe in it. We've got to have the heart for it," the coach said.

Ronan got on the board with a block, then started to take advantage of the free balls Whitefish was sending over the net.

Carli Starkel got two straight kills to cut the lead to five points. Then, with offensive counterpart Kaylee Larson in the front row, Starkel served five straight points to catch Ronan up at 12-all.

From there, it was a free-for-all.

FauntLeroy again served Whitefish into the lead, but Larson returned the favor for Ronan, jump serving four straight points to put the Maidens up 20-18.

The Bulldogs took the lead on a McCara Cullen kill and went up 23-20 on a Ronan hitting error and a kill from Kalbfleisch.

Ronan battled back for one last chance at 22-24, but then buried the serve in the net.

"They played really well. I liked what I saw," Hutchinson said of the Maidens.

"They fought really hard. They've improved with every game. Whitefish is a great team, but I thought we did really well," she added.

And the fourth game?

"We came up short. That's all I can say. A lot of long rallies, it just came down to who wanted it. We pushed for it as hard as we could. I'm proud of my girls," Hutchinson said.

"They came back a long way. We're getting better every game and it's not even midseason yet," she added.

Kills: Ronan 41 (Carli Starkel 15, Kaylee Larson 15), Whitefish 32 (Shannon Kalbfleisch 16), Assists: Ronan 23 (Kelsey Swalling 20), Whitefish 24 (Jessica Slaybaugh 13) Blocks: Ronan 1 (Kelly Lake), Whitefish 9 (Kate Klundt 8), Digs: Ronan 128 (Starkel 41, Larson 40), Whitefish 115 (Klundt 29), Aces: Ronan 10 (Larson 6, Starkel 2, Swalling 2), Whitefish 16 (Molly Filipek 5).