Volleyball: Flustered Flathead bashes Big Sky in 3

Missoula Big Sky’s chaotic offense briefly flustered the first-place Flathead Bravettes in Thursday’s Western AA volleyball match at Flathead High School, but the Bravettes quickly adapted to win in straight sets, 25-22, 25-16, 25-12.

“I think Big Sky kind of threw us off with a lot of random,” Flathead coach Leon Wilcox said.

“Big Sky played really hard and they kept bringing it over, you just didn’t know how or from where.”

While Big Sky’s offense never seemed to get organized, the Bravettes hit their stride midway through the second set with Cassie Krueger blasting away from the left side, Kwyn Johnson hitting well-placed shots to the corners and setter Emily Russell directing traffic in the middle.

“Big Sky had a lot of good blocking and their libero was really scrappy, and that slowed us down,” Krueger said.

“But we overcame it, especially in the second and third sets.”

Krueger led Flathead with 18 kills while Johnson contributed 10. As a team, the Bravettes tallied 43 kills to Big Sky’s 21.

Flathead (10-2 overall, 6-0 Western AA) raced out to an 8-1 lead in the first set, but Big Sky (3-11, 1-6) chipped away at its deficit. The Eagles nearly tied it up toward the end of the set when they scored five consecutive points to make the score 21-20, but miscommunication stalled Big Sky’s momentum on the next point when it received a four-hit violation. Flathead capitalized by winning three of the next five points to take the set, which ended when Krueger received a set from Russell and slammed a kill between the two rows of Big Sky’s defense.

“As a team, we think we didn’t come out strong enough in the first set,” Krueger said.

“Every single one of us needed to step it up and play together.”

Big Sky trailed 8-7 in the second set when Flathead seized the momentum. Emma Andrews and Krueger put down back-to-back kills and Russell blocked a Big Sky attack, prompting the Eagles to call a timeout. A Big Sky error gave away a point after the timeout, then Krueger smashed two straight kills to give the Bravettes a 14-7 lead.

Big Sky answered with a five-point run before Flathead closed out the set by winning 11 of the final 15 points.

“We finally started to focus,” Wilcox said of his team’s improvement.

“We had to focus on our side of the court. I think we got a little wrapped up in what was happening on their side in the beginning.”

Flathead cruised in the third set, jumping out to a 10-2 lead, and finishing strong by winning seven of the last nine points.

Halfway through their conference schedule, the Bravettes sit atop the Western AA standings and have dropped just one set in conference play.

“This is the toughest part of the season,” Wilcox said.

“We need to increase our effort and be better at the things that got us where we are, and that’s not easy to do in the middle of the season.

“I’m proud of how the girls have done. We’ve only given up one set in the league, and that’s pretty tough to do.”

Flathead travels to Missoula Saturday to take on Sentinel.

Kills — Big Sky 21 (Ellen Wolferman 7), Flathead 43 (Cassie Krueger 18, Kwyn Johnson 10). Assists — Big Sky 19 (Jesse Schafer 19), Flathead 39 (Emily Russell 35). Aces — Big Sky 4 (Schafer 2), Flathead 9 (Russell 4). Blocks — Big Sky 4 (Hana Feilzer 2), Flathead 4 (Johnson 2, Sarah Risenhoover 2). Digs — Big Sky 46 (Brielle Rolle 13), Flathead 56 (Johnson 12, Nouf Rashoodi 11).