Perfect ending ... Stillwater Christian (30-0) captures state volleyball title
The Stillwater Christian volleyball team celebrates their MCAA state championship win over Helena Christian School at home Saturday afternoon. The Cougars were undefeated this season.
Stillwater’s Katie Harrel (right) goes up for a spike at the net against Helena Christian School’s Caitlin Olson.
Abby Smith stayed up late for this particular show.
Half a world away in the Czech Republic - and eight hours ahead of Saturday's 2:30 p.m. start time - the former Stillwater Christian School volleyball player settled in front of her computer to watch her old team play for the Montana Christian Athletic Association state championship.
They sent her to bed happy.
Younger sister Julia Smith had 10 kills and 12 digs to help the Cougars complete an undefeated volleyball season with a 25-11, 25-21, 25-11 win over Helena Christian High School in Saturday's MCAA championship match.
"She wanted to watch the game, so we set up a web cam so she could," Julia Smith said of her sister.
Tournament MVP Jordan Danz contributed 13 kills, 11 digs and three aces in the championship.
"As for finishing undefeated? "It's an honor," Smith said.
"It's been really fun to play. It hasn't been our goal - at all. But to end up like this is awesome. It's been a pleasure," she said.
"Undefeated wasn't part of our thoughts - ever," agreed
coach Dave Shawback.
"It's just a great team. Every single player, whether they played or not in this championship was an important part of our team. It's hard for some of them to sit and watch the others work hard. But we wouldn't be a complete team without them. We wouldn't be the team we are without them," he added.
There was one hiccup.
The Cougars rolled in the first set, but the Rams answered point for point most of the way through the second.
"I think our nerves settled down a little bit and they started to believe they could make some things happen," Helena Christian High coach Jonie Fader said of the Rams.
"We've struggled with the mental game a little bit this year and I think that second set they put the mental game into action and started to believe," she said.
"(The Cougars) do well," Fader said.
"They swing well and they have tall kids and they have tradition here - and that helps a lot when you get in stressful situations. You start believing in your tradition and that can carry you," she said.
"We were making a lot of errors. We just kind of broke down mentally," Smith said of that game.
"It was things that we knew how to do, but we weren't thinking about it as much as we should," said sophomore setter Morgan Paolini.
"We were dwelling on our past mistakes and that was influencing what we were doing this play."
"But I give all the credit to the team. We really worked together and pulled it off. We couldn't have done it without everyone," Smith said.
"We really came together. The second game could have been better, but I think we brought it back," Paolini agreed.
"There was a lot of encouragment, just bringing each other up," she said.
"We had confidence in each other. Without it, we would have just fallen apart. We needed to have confidence in each other to get done what we knew we could get done," Smith said.
"We had too many errors," Shawback said of the second set.
"And that's what let them back in. We haven't been playing that way much, but volleyball is an emotional game and tournament time is emotional," he said.
"At some point, I thought ‘they're just pushing too hard. We just need to settle down,'" he said.
"I actually took some timeouts in that game. It was just a matter of a couple hitting errors ... a couple passing errors ... we were in the net. It was just a series of errors. I told them ‘let's refocus our minds here and be smart.'
"I think they did that. They came back. They pushed ahead and finished that game strong," he said.
"In the third set I wanted them to be more aggressive. Let's be smart, but let's be aggressive. Let's hit," he said.
The Cougars got down early 5-1 in that set, but Shawback wasn't worried.
"Just to look at their faces, you would not know they were down. As a coach, sometimes I've been frustrated with them, but I don't think I've ever been worried about them like I have with other teams," he said.
"My goal as a coach is to try to make them a team - every year. Some years it's awesome. Some years, it's not awesome. This year is one of those awesome years. I love this team and I love these girls," he smiled.
Stillwater Christian School def. Helena Christian High School
25-11, 25-21, 25-11
Statistics (for Stillwater only)
Kills -37 (Jordan Danz 13, Julia Smith 10); Assists - Stillwater 32 (Morgan Paolini 30); Blocks - Stillwater 6 (Kathrynn Gerard 3, Katie Harrel 2); Digs - Stillwater 60 (Linnea Hashley 15, Julia Smith 12, Jordan Danz 11, Samantha Red Elk 11); Aces Stillwater 8 (Danz 3, Harrel 3).
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Third/Fourth Place
Helena Christian School def.
Flathead Valley Home School 27-25, 25-19, 25-15
Statistics (For Flathead Valley only)
Kills - 15 (Shelby Lucht 7, Shelby Sladek 4); Blocks - 3 (Mariah Burden 2, Jade Priere 1); Assists - 13 (Sladek 8, Lucht 3); Digs - 35 (Lindsay Ehlers 11, Lucht 9); Aces - 10 (Burden 3, Sladek 3)