Glacier grinds out wins in openers
Glacier sophomore Tiffany Marks (left) tips the ball back over the net as senior Rachel Cutler helps defend during Saturday afternoon’s match with C.M. Russell at Flathead High School.
Moments of brilliance followed by moments of head scratching.
That’s how Glacier volleyball coach Christy Harkins described the Wolfpack effort on Saturday.
“Today showed me some strengths we didn’t know we had,” Harkins said after the Wolfpack defeated both CMR (25-10, 17-25, 25-11, 25-17) and Great Falls High (20-25, 25-18, 25-17, 24-26, 15-13) at Flathead High School.
The four schools played a quadrangular with varsity matches at Flathead and sub-varsity at Glacier.
Flathead played Great Falls High Saturday morning. That was followed by Glacier taking on CMR and Great Falls High back-to-back. The day wrapped up with Flathead versus Great Falls High.
After nine straight games, the Wolfpack was more than tired.
The moments of brilliance? That would be Glacier, up two sets to one, sprinting to a 18-12 lead in the fourth set against Great Falls High.
The head scratching? That would be the Wolfpack allowing Great Falls to rally for a 26-24 win in that game.
Another example of great play would be the Wolfpack bouncing back to win the deciding fifth game 15-13.
“Overall, I’m very pleased with how we played. I liked how they fought in set five. You’ve got to have those games that challenge you,” she said.
The wins count on Glacier’s record (2-0), but they are not conference victories and they won’t count as tiebreakers, either.
“For the beginning of the season, I thought we passed fairly well. But it was either perfect — or an ace (for the other team),” she said.
The Wolfpack also turned in more hitting errors than Harkins would have liked.
“But that’s early season in my mind, also. You have two weeks (to prepare for the first match) and you have to get everything in. The offense will come,” she said.
The bulk of Glacier’s kills in both games came from outside hitters Lexy Boschee and Rachel Cutler. Boschee had 11 kills in the win over CMR and both Boschee and Cutler turned in 17 kills against Great Falls.
Cami Mathison led the defensive effort with 17 digs against CMR and 20 against Great Falls.
Senior setter Paige Latimer finished the day with 62 assists.
“I thought Paige did a good job. That’s a lot of volleyball,” the coach said.
One area which Harkins was particularly pleased with was blocking.
The Wolfpack has 6-foot-2 sophomore Tiffany Marks and 6-foot freshman Cassidy Hashley in the middle.
“We got a lot of touches. We made a lot of errors, but those are easily correctable,” she added.
The Wolfpack has a busy week ahead. It goes to Missoula Hellgate on Tuesday, hosts Flathead Thursday, then goes to Helena High on Saturday.
Glacier def. CMR 25-10, 17-25, 25-11, 25-17
Kills — Glacier 28 (Lexy Boschee 11); Assists — Glacier 20 (Paige Latimer 20); Digs — Glacier 49 (Cami Mathison 17); Aces — Glacier 11 (Rachel Cutler 3, Mathison 3, Cassidy Hashley 3). (CMR stats not available).
Glacier def. Great Falls High 20-25, 25-18, 25-17, 24-26, 15-13
Kills — Glacier 54 (Lexy Boschee 17, Rachel Cutler 17); Assists — Glacier 42 (Paige Latimer 42); Blocks — Glacier 8 (Cassidy Hashley 5); Digs — Glacier 63 (Cutler 20, Mathison 20); Aces — Glacier 9 (Boschee 2, Mathison 2, Latimer 2). Great Falls High stats not available.