Volleyball: Bravettes streak by Wolfpack

The hitters came from everywhere.

Where one Flathead Bravette left off, another stepped

up on Thursday as Flathead (11-4, 7-2) overcame a slow start to

defeat visiting Glacier (6-8, 3-4) 18-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-23 and

sweep the crosstown volleyball series for the 2011 season.

It was the fifth straight Western AA league win for

Flathead.

Flathead outhit the Wolfpack 52-39 — and spread that

offense out with three hitters contributing more than 10 kills

each. Cassie Krueger led with 13, followed by Hannah Sackett and

Kwyn Johnson with 11 each.

Emily Russell had 27 assists and three aces and Emma

Andrews had seven blocks for Flathead. Defensively, Sackett led

with 14 digs.

Sophomore Cassidy Hashley led the Wolfpack with nine

kills and six blocks. Freshman setter Hannah Liss had 32

assists.

Emily Gilbertson had 12 digs and she and Liss each

served four aces.

“I thought Cassie Hashley was fantastic. I really

really did. I was really proud of Cassidy,” said Glacier coach

Christy Harkins. 

“She stepped up tonight in the big match,” she

said. 

There were no easy sets for anybody. 

This was a match filled with long rallies,

hard-fought points and plenty of high-fiving emotion. Athletes

climbed over one another in their efforts to keep the ball in

play.

“Glacier brought everything I knew they would,”

Flathead coach Leon Wilcox said.

“In spite of the mismatch offensively, they beat us

with intensity. They came out way more aggressive, way scrappier,”

he said of the first set.

“We just did not bring that. We’ve got to come out

all guns blazing, right off the bat. There have been times we’ve

done that, but it’s not consistent,” he said. 

“I’m proud of the girls for fighting. I’m proud of

how they played,” he added. 

“This is a nice little streak we’ve got going.”

Flathead built leads in each of the final three sets,

but Glacier roared back in each — either tying or taking the

lead.

“We kept expecting them to give it to us and they

wouldn’t,” said Flathead junior setter Emily Russell.

“(The Wolfpack) just keep coming and coming and

coming,” Wilcox said.

“They never quit. They’re very scrappy and their

serving killed us. They placed the ball well and they found the

weaknesses in our serve receive,” he added.

For its part, the Wolfpack will be counting the

couldas, shouldas and wouldas.

“We had our chances. But against a good team — and

(the Bravettes) are a good team, it’s hard. You have to battle

every single point. We’re not quite to the edge of battling every

point yet,” said Harkins.

“They have so many offensive weapons.

“My blockers all had so many people they were worried

about all the time. I thought they did a good job on Hannah

Sackett, but then Cassie Krueger stepped up and Timi (Severson) had

some key hits at the right time,” she added.

“They did a good job of being able to move their ball

around and have another hitter step up.

“That’s what you get for having six great hitters out

there all the time,” she said. 

“We are still learning how to finish. We’re still

trying to find that leader who will step up at the end of the match

and want the ball.

“I feel we haven’t stepped up to that competitive

level, where as individuals we say ‘I want the ball, I want to

serve right now, I want to pass.’ We step back and wait for someone

else to do that,” she said.

For Flathead, the slow start is a concern — for both

Wilcox and the Bravette players.

“I’ve got to hand it to our kids,” Wilcox said.

“They picked it up. They turned it around. They were

aggressive.

“But it’s the consistency I’m looking for right now.

We have the tools we have the athletes. They are learning.”

“We weren’t there to play yet. We didn’t put in the

effort,” said senior Alison Lunde of the first set.

The first set “was horrible,” Russell agreed.

“We came out flat. We were expecting to win, but we

didn’t come out with the intensity we needed to. But we made up our

minds ... we didn’t want to have an embarrassing finish, so we

needed to start playing more aggressive,” she said. 

“We decided we needed to play harder than we had

been,” she said. 

“We were up and down, but we put it together. We

realized we needed to play — and play for us, not to play not to

lose,” Lunde said. 

“We needed to play together as a team,” she

said. 

Kills — Glacier 39 (Cassidy Hashley 9), Flathead 52

(Cassie Krueger 13, Hannah Sackett 11, Kwyn Johnson 11); Assists —

Glacier 34 (Hannah Liss 32), Flathead 48 (Emily Russell 27), Blocks

— Glacier 12 (Hashley 6, Tiffany Marks 5), Flathead 10 (Emma

Andrews 7); Digs — Glacier 44 (Emily Gilbertson 12), Flathead 62

(Sackett 14); Aces — Glacier 10 (Liss 4, Gilbertson 4); Flathead 4

(Russell 3).