Bulldogs outlast Wildkats in volleyball
<p>Whitefish junior Kelsey McFadden digs the ball during Thursday’s Northwestern A</p> <p>conference match with Columbia Falls.</p>
<p>Columbia Falls junior Hope Burlage (20) sets the ball for Taylor Peterson ( 11) during the first set against Whitefish on Thursday night in Whitefish.</p>
WHITEFISH - Nobody left early.
It's often a pretty good show when Columbia Falls and Whitefish get together for anything.
But Thursday's volleyball matchup has to rank right up there among the more heartfelt and entertaining showdowns between the two schools.
In the end, Whitefish outlasted the Wildkats in five sets - 25-18, 13-25, 25-15, 26-28, 15-10.
"They have some heart. Our girls have heart. They wanted it... I'm just so proud of the them. They've been working their butts off for three weeks, really all summer and this is where it culminates and where their hard work really shows," said Whitefish coach Sarah Scott.
"But I told the girls in the locker room that we need to stop riding the roller coaster and play at a top level," she said.
"The fifth set was a see-saw. We came out strong. I told the girls we had to play our game, to go out there and just play smart, not try and do things we hadn't practiced. I told them to do what we knew how to do and do it well."
As for the Wildkats, they will be kicking themselves for some missed opportunities.
Columbia Falls finished the night ahead in every statistical category but one. It had 33 kills, 82 digs, 28 assists and served 10 aces. Whitefish had 27 kills, 52 digs, 24 assists and seven aces.
The Bulldogs did, however, have 12 blocks to five for Columbia Falls.
But the Bulldogs got the points when they needed them.
"We missed some key serves that we needed to have. I can see clearly in my mind some blocks that came down in front of us when we should have been pressing over the net. It was a team culmination ... we just weren't quite able to finish it off," said Columbia Falls coach Addy Connelly.
"It was wanting it really badly and not knowing how to shut off that ‘want' and go back to the basics of ‘when I'm blocking I have to be pressing over the net and when I'm digging I have to hold my platform, get (the ball) to the target,'" she said.
"And then being five sets early on in the season, there's fatigue that comes in. The girls played really hard. It's the hardest I've seen them play at Whitefish.
"It's hard to come here and play. They have a loud crowd and the girls did really well shutting that out and coming together as a team," Connelly said.
The Wildkats were playing as a complete team for the first time this season.
"We're coming back from some adversity and playing pretty well, so I'm excited to see where we head out," the coach said.
"I'm proud of their performance," she added.
The first three sets were all about one team or the other. Whitefish was strong in sets one and three, the Wildkats ruled set two.
"We figured it out in sets two and four. Five was close, it just wasn't quite enough," Connelly said.
"We came out really strong," Scott said.
"We're a strong serving team and we're going to have to count on that all season," she added.
Set four was a knockdown drag out - the Wildkats rolled ahead 18-12, but Whitefish battled back to first tie the set at 24, then go ahead by one for a match point.
Then it was Columbia Falls' turn to battle - fighting off the match point when Whitefish was whistled for being in the net, then winning the set when Hope Burlage saved a bad pass and Erika Nelson's bump landed for a kill.
"We're experienced, but we're still a young team. We're still working on playing under pressure," Scott said.
"Columbia Falls is a scrappy team. They don't let anything hit the floor. They also have some great servers and we let them take advantage of us for a little bit," she added.
Hope Burlage led all hitters with 10 kills for Columbia Falls. Taylor Peterson added nine kills, three blocks and 15 digs for the Wildkats. Shaun Rowe added 20 digs and served five aces.
Abby Strellnauer had nine kills for the Bulldogs and Brooke Silliver and Baylee Tveidt had four blocks each. Bekah Weaver had 15 digs and three aces for Whitefish.
Kills - Columbia Falls 33 (Hope Burlage 10, Taylor Peterson 9), Whitefish 27 (Abby Strellnauer 9, Emily Sullivan 7), Assists - Columbia Falls 28 (Erika Nelson 16, Burlage 11), Whitefish - 25 (Marlow Schulz 14, Taylor Havens 11), Blocks - Columbia Falls 5 (Peterson 3, Haley Belgarde 2), Whitefish 12 (Brooke Silliker 4, Baylee Tveidt 4), Digs - Columbia Falls 82 (Shaun Rowe 20, Belgarde 16, Peterson 15), Whitefish 52 (Bekah Weaver 15); Aces - Columbia Falls 10 (Rowe 5, Burlage 2), Whitefish 7 (Weaver 3).