AA volleyball: Pack going to state
The Glacier volleyball team cruised past Missoula Big Sky, 25-17, 25-17, 25-16, in a state tournament play-in match at Glacier High School Thursday.
The win gave Glacier the third seed from Western AA and its third straight state tournament appearance.
“I’m really excited,” Glacier middle blocker Tiffany Marks said.
“I’m just excited because this year has been really fun. With it being my senior year, I want to go out with a bang.”
Big Sky did little to trouble Glacier at the net as the Wolfpack’s outside hitters hit through and around the Eagles’ block throughout the match. Glacier hitter Cassi Hashley led the charge, pounding 18 kills to equal Big Sky’s total.
“I just swing,” Hashley said. “Swing for the floor. My teammates tell me where the blockers are so I can hit around them.”
Glacier gave away several points in the first set, but was generally in control, holding Big Sky to four kills and winning most of the battles at the net. The Eagles utilized a 6-2 offense with six attackers and two setters, but Harkins said her team did a good job handling the unconventional set.
“They came out running a 6-2, so they had the most opportunities to hit that they could,” Glacier coach Christy Harkins said of Big Sky.
“I think that was a good call on their part. It looked to me like at the beginning of the game their game plan was to put a lot of stuff into the right-back corner, and I thought our girls handled that well.”
The Wolfpack led the first set 8-7 when Hashley ignited a match-changing 9-1 run by blasting a kill through two Big Sky blockers. Jessica Stenberg followed with an ace and by the time the run was over, Glacier led 17-8.
Four straight Glacier errors made the score 19-14 later in the set, but the Wolfpack won six of the last nine points on kills by Hashley and Liss, a block by Hashley and three Big Sky errors.
Big Sky was more aggressive in the second set, but still didn’t have the firepower to match up with the Wolfpack. Glacier outside hitter Katie Wiley won a battle at the net with Big Sky’s Hana Feilzer to break a 2-2 tie and Glacier led the rest of the way.
Big Sky had a chance to slow Glacier’s momentum midway through the set when a pair of blockers stopped Marks at the net, but Big Sky hit the ensuing free ball long. Glacier capitalized with back-to-back kills by Wiley and Marks to make the score 16-8, and ended up taking the set 25-17.
“I think after the first set they got some fire under them,” Marks said.
“We just kind of came together and decided we needed to fight harder.”
The third set was more of the same with Glacier winning 25-16 to punch its ticket to the state tournament.
“I thought we played as a team very nicely,” Hashley said.
“I thought we passed really well tonight, which got our offense going.”
As the third seed from Western AA, Glacier will open the state tournament Nov. 8 against Bozeman, the second seed from the Eastern division.
Kills - Big Sky 18 (Ellen Wolferman 6, Hana Feilzer 5), Glacier 35 (Cassi Hashley 18). Assists - Big Sky 14 (Jesse Schafer 10), Glacier 31 (Hannah Liss 29). Aces - Big Sky 1 (Feilzer 1), Glacier 11 (Hannah Atlee 4). Blocks - Big Sky 4 (Feilzer 2, Anna Gragg 2), Glacier 4 (Tiffany Marks 2). Digs - Big Sky 35 (Schafer 9, Maddi Winz 6), Glacier 38 (Hashley 12).