Flathead falls in 3 to West

BOZEMAN — Hannah Sackett had 17 kills, two aces and 19 digs in a losing effort for the Flathead Bravette volleyball team in the opening round of the Class AA state tournament at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse on Thursday.

Class AA No. 1 Billings West swept the Bravettes 25-20, 25-16, 25-20 in the first game of the tournament.

“We had many opportunities in that first set,” said Flathead coach Leon Wilcox.

“Too many unforced errors.” 

Every first-set lead the Bravettes would garner for themselves was very quickly given back to the Golden Bears in errors.

The second set was the worst of the day for Flathead.

“Our serve receive fell apart. We couldn’t pass the ball,” the coach said.

 And just when they got the passing under control, the hitting went south, he said.

In the third set, “I thought our passing got back on track, but we had too many hitting errors.”

West didn’t appear to have many problems at all — it outhit Flathead in every statistical category except aces. The Bears had 15 more kills than the Bravettes with 39, had 11 blocks to nine for the Bravettes and out dug Flathead 71 to 64.

While Sackett had 17 kills for Flathead, no one else was even listed in the category. West had one hitter with 12 kills and a second with seven.

On a positive note, “I thought our blocking was really good, ” Wilcox said.

“And I thought our upperclassmen had a good match. But our underclassmen looked overwhelmed.”

Other leaders for Flathead were Alison Lunde with 18 assists and Kylie Schlegel with six blocks.

Flathead will take on Bozeman in loser-out action at 10 a.m. today.

Kills — Flathead 24 (Hannah Sackett 17), West 39 (Kylie Nielsen 12, Jenna Fiscus 10), Assists — Flathead 26 (Alison Lunde 18), West 37 (Liz King 35), Blocks — Flathead 9 (Kylie Schlegel 6, Timi Severson 4, Danika Johnson 4), West 11 (Janel Olson 8), Digs — Flathead 64 (Sackett 19, Sarah Aylor 12), West 71 (Nielsen 16, Olson 14), Aces — Flathead 6 (Lunde 4).