Spikers break in fast at starter tourney

| August 30, 2009 12:00 AM

Whitefish goes 7-1, Polson, Libby next at 6-2

By DIXIE KNUTSON/The Daily Inter Lake

WHITEFISH - The Polson Lady Pirate volleyball team got a lesson in success on Saturday.

When a team improves from a 1-17 record to a 16-4 season and advances to the state tournament - it suddenly becomes the team everyone wants to knock off.

"We've always been the team that gets beat. But now I think teams are coming at us," said Pirate coach Jan Toth.

"Every team plays us harder than they play the others. Our girls just have to get used to that.

"It's hard. Teams really, really play up at a higher level when they play us. But that makes for a stronger team and stronger character and I think our kids have such great character," she added.

"(Other teams' are coming after us and that's OK. It's better than being the one being beat on," she smiled.

The Pirates were without two starters at the Whitefish Starter Tournament - and still came away with a 6-2 record.

A wedding caused senior outside hitter Nicole Davey to miss the tournament, while classmate Christa Redcrow is working on getting her 10 practices in. Both are expected back this coming week.

With Davey and Redcrow out, "I put some young girls in just to see what they had. They played really, really hard," Toth said.

"We were just out of our rotation and I was subbing a lot, but we came out swinging.

"Breanne Kelley had a great tournament, Kayla Duford set a great tournament. There were just a lot of positive things that we have going our way," the coach said.

There were 10 teams at the tournament, split into two 5-team pools. Each match consisted of two games to 25.

Whitefish finished with the best record - 7-1. Libby and Polson were both at 6-2.

Eureka and Belgrade were each 4-4, Ronan, Columbia Falls and Bigfork were all 3-5. Stillwater Christian and Browning were both 2-6.

Libby coach Cindy Ostrem-Johnston also saw positives, and things on which to work.

"We lost the first one and lost the last one and won all the games in between. But that's not what's important over here. It's that we got good playing experience with a new mix of kids," she said.

"They played really well at times, and not so well at other times.I thought overall, they did all right.

"We need to work on staying focused throughout a whole game, a whole match. We had some real ups and downs," she said.

Chief among her concerns was a penchant for building a big lead, then letting it slip away.

"Eight-10 point leads, we blew them instead of taking advantage. We really need to work on finishing games," she said.

Serve receive and communication were also two areas of concern.

"I also saw some really bright spots in our play today," she added.

Against Belgrade, "I thought the kids played intense. They played hard and I liked that we were able to feed different hitters and that we had variation in our offense. We want to be able to set the ball to other hitters - that keeps the defense honest. We want all the hitters to be ready," she said.

"Jackie 'senior middle hitter) Mee is the big gun, but we have good hitters around her, too."

Results

Pool A

Whitefish 7-1

Eureka 4-4

Ronan 3-5

Columbia Falls 3-5

Bigfork 3-5

Matches

Whitefish 25, Ronan 13

Whitefish 25, Ronan 17

Columbia Falls 25, Eureka 18

Eureka 25, Columbia Falls 12

Whitefish 25, Bigfork 20

Bigfork 25, Whitefish 18

Ronan 25, Eureka 15

Eureka 25, Ronan 19

Columbia Falls 28, Ronan 26

Ronan 25, Columbia Falls 23

Eureka 25, Bigfork 18

Whitefish 25, Eureka 21

Whitefish 25, Eureka 18

Columbia Falls 25, Bigfork 21

Bigfork 25, Columbia Falls 22

Bigfork 25, Ronan 11

Ronan 27, Bigfork 25

Whitefish 25, Columbia Falls 14

Pool B

Libby 6-2

Polson 6-2

Belgrade 4-4

Stillwater Christian 2-6

Browning 2-6

Matches

Polson 25, Libby 23

Libby 25, Polson 20

Belgrade 25, Stillwater Christian 23

Belgrade 25, Stillwater Christian 21

Libby 25,Browning 18

Libby 25, Browning 16

Polson 25, Belgrade 20

Polson 27, Belgrade 25

Polson 25, Stillwater Christian 14

Polson 25, Stillwater Christian 22

Belgrade 25, Browning 14

Belgrade 25, Browning 16

Libby 25, Belgrade 20

Libby 25, Belgrade 14

Stillwater Christian 25, Browning 23

Browning 26, Stillwater Christian 24

Polson 25, Browning 14

Browning 25, Polson 22

Libby 25, Stillwater Christian 17

Stillwater Christian 25, Libby 21