Bravettes: On to state volleyball

Flathead punched its ticket to the state volleyball tournament for the 11th straight year with a 25-16, 25-16, 25-16 playoff victory over Missoula Big Sky Thursday at Flathead High School.

The win gives Flathead (17-10) the No. 2 seed from the West at the Class AA tournament, which begins Thursday in Bozeman. Big Sky’s season is over.

“It’s tradition,” Flathead outside hitter Emma Andrews said.

“Going to state is a priority. We want to make it there, it’s something that we look forward to and it’s something that we set as a goal at the beginning of our practices at the beginning of the season.”

The Bravettes were without regular setter Jessica Simmons, who sat out with a shoulder injury, but that hardly mattered as Big Sky (3-19) had no answer for Flathead’s attack led by senior hitters Timi Severson and Andrews.

Severson smashed 19 kills, Andrews hit 11 and the Bravettes totaled 45 with back-up setter Xio Lopp running the offense.

“We’ve been practicing with her this whole week,” Andrews said of Lopp.

“At first it was kind of iffy, but she got thrown into our game against Big Sky last time in conference, so we’ve been practicing with her. It’s been going smoothly since then.”

Simmons dislocated her shoulder diving for a ball in Flathead’s regular season finale on Saturday. Coach Leon Wilcox said she could’ve played Thursday but was held out as a precaution.

“We didn’t want to chance it,” he said.

“We just left her on the bench and played Xio again, and Xio did a great job.”

Flathead opened up a 13-4 lead in the first set, when Big Sky sprang to life behind 6-foot-1 middle hitter Anna Gragg.

Gragg blocked Andrews at the net and her long arms caused several Flathead errors in a 6-0 Big Sky run. Flathead’s Sarah Risenhoover answered with a kill before Gragg blocked Andrews again to make the score 14-10.

Severson changed the momentum when she challenged Gragg on 50-50 ball and won, then blocked Gragg on the next point to put the Bravettes ahead 17-10.

“She was definitely someone we were looking out for,” Severson said of Gragg.

“She’s definitely a threat.”

Andrews followed with back-to-back aces and Flathead ran away with the first set, which ended when Andrews smashed a kill that wildly ricocheted off Big Sky’s back row.

Flathead raced out to a 9-1 lead in the second and cruised to victory in a set that ended with a back-row kill from Andrews.

Severson provided the highlights in the third set. She put down kills on three of Flathead’s first four points, powered a free ball off the face of Big Sky’s Hana Feilzer later in the set and smashed a kill so hard it hit the gym’s ceiling after deflecting off a Big Sky blocker’s head.

“I think there were some areas that we could’ve cleaned up a little bit, but the girls looked like they felt like they were in control the whole time,” Wilcox said. “They never looked nervous. Even when we gave up a few points, they never looked like they were worried. They just kept plugging right along, kept working, and I thought they worked pretty hard.”

Lopp finished with assists on 38 of Flathead’s 45 kills, Andrews had match highs with four aces and 18 digs and Severson tallied five of Flathead’s six blocks.

Feilzer had 14 of Big Sky’s 24 kills and Gragg had all three of the Eagles’ blocks.

Flathead will play Bozeman, the No. 3 seed from the East, in the first round of the state tournament.

Kills - Big Sky 24 (Hana Feilzer 14), Flathead 45 (Timi Severson 19, Emma Andrews 11). Assists - Big Sky 17 (Madison Winz 15), Flathead 42 (Xio Lopp 38). Aces - Big Sky 2 (Jess Lewis 1), Flathead 8 (Andrews 4). Blocks - Big Sky 3 (Anna Gragg 3), Flathead 6 (Severson 5). Digs - Big Sky 45 (Alexis Madzelonka 8), Flathead 70 (Andrews 18).

Other Class AA volleyball playoff results:

Thursday

Eastern Division

Bozeman def. Billings West

25-16, 29-27, 25-17

Bozeman (15-6) - Kills 30 (Cailtin Lonergan 9, Tiffany Shearman 8). Assists 29 (Kayla Verzuh 14, Hailee Olsen 12). Aces 7 (Shearman 2, Madison Studer 2). Blocks 11 (Lauren Anczak 6, Lonergan 4). Digs 51 (Maggie Green 13, Shearman 13, Olsen 8).

West (3-13) - Kills 21 (Kennedy Hildebrand 8, Sadie Lehenbauer 5). Assists 19 (Christine Wing 19. Aces 2 (Wing 2). Blocks 7 (Ashley Davis 2, Lehenbauer 2). Digs 54 (Davis 15, Tatum Meyer 12).

Great Falls High def. Butte

25-18, 25-19, 25-12

Butte – Digs 62 (Sammy McGree 15), blocks 7.5 (Brianna O’Mara 3.5), kills 20 (Baylee Thatcher 8), assists 17 (McKaul Ori 9), Jaces 2 (two with 1).

GFH – Digs 63 (Skyler Ortiz 23), blocks 3 (Nora Klick 2), kills 38 (Courtney Hammer 7, Markaela Francis 7), assists 30 (Kasey Linksey 30), aces 5 (five with 1).

Billings Skyview def. Great Falls

C.M. Russell 25-14, 25-13, 25-14

Great Falls CMR (3-21) -- Kills: 20 (Karly Thompson 6). Blocks: 3 (Katie Smith 3). Assists: 20 (Taylor Mangan 9, Karlee Simonson 7). Digs: 26 (Kylie Otis 13). Aces: 5 (Mangan 3).

Billings Skyview (22-4) -- Kills: 38 (Hailey Copinga 13, Aubree Mason 10). Blocks: 3 (Copinga 2). Assists: 32 (Breeanna Mason 28). Digs: 34 (Bekah Ellis 7, B. Mason 6). Aces: 7 (B. Mason 3, Deja Fuson 2).

Western Division

Missoula Sentinel def. Helena Capital

27-25, 7-25, 25-21, 29-27

Kills - MS 51 (Krista Hunton 16), CHS 48 (Kenzi Johnston 15); Assists - MS 45 (Tian Harrington 32), CHS 42 (Rayna Pilgeram 34); Blocks - MS 7 (Echo Lenss 5), CHS 3 (Abby Crisp 2); Digs - MS 89 (Jenna Cady 26), CHS 86 (Elise Mathis 29); Aces - MS 9 (Abby Hanich 4), CHS 4 (Mathis 2, Sydni Shea 2).

Tuesday

Helena High def. Missoula Hellgate 25-18, 25-13, 25-13

Kills - MH 16 (Mari Lundin 12), HHS 37 (Jenna Starke 11, Regan Fruh 11); Assists - MH 12 (Paula Woerlein 10), HHS 32 (Madison Richtmeyer 31); Blocks - MH 2, HHS 5 (Starke 3, Fruh 2); Digs - MH 32 (Kallie Elliott 9), HHS 48 (Savannah Swanson 13, Alicia Norling 10); Aces - MH 3 (Rachel Martens 2), HHS 6 (Tylar Holland 2).