The right to big arms
The power seems to have shifted sides of the net in Kalispell’s crosstown volleyball rivalry. In this case, literally.
For two years, Flathead dominated the rivalry, winning five straight matches while relying on its big arms up front. Hannah Sackett, Kwyn Johnson and Cassie Krueger all went on to play at the NCAA Division I level. Sackett, is playing in the Big 12 at West Virginia. Johnson in the Pac-12 for No. 18 Arizona State and Krueger in-state for Montana State of the Big Sky.
Johnson and Krueger led Flathead to a second-place finish at state in 2012 and the Bravettes finished second in the West last season behind all-staters Timi Severson and Emma Andrews.
That second-place finish in the west came at the hands of Glacier, which started to shift the scales last fall with some height flowing into the northern Kalispell school, going undefeated in the Western AA conference for the first time in school history. With that, Glacier swept the series last season, winning its first contests in the series since 2010 behind the play of senior Cassi Hashley and junior Katie Wiley at the net.
Wiley is leading the Wolfpack’s deep roster of front row players this season, with nine girls on the roster listed at 5-foot-11 or taller.
“The size, you can’t coach it,” Flathead coach Leon Wilcox said. “You hope you get it. They’re on a wave of getting tall kids. And we had ours.”
Glacier, typically strong in the middle over the years, has added some power to its outside pins this season with the introduction of all that height. Wiley and fellow outside hitters Ali Williams and Tessa Krueger form a difficult pairing to match up to along with middle hitters Brielle Bumgarner and Nikki Krueger. Along with a solid group off the bench, and all-state setter Hannah Liss, the Wolfpack has one of the deepest teams in the state this season.
“We’re very versatile,” Glacier coach Christy Harkins said.
“It’s very nice to have those different options. Every hitter coming in has a different shot that’s their strength. I believe I have three, four kids sitting on the bench that can come in if I need to use them too. It’s so nice to have that diversity.”
The play at the net has been what has allowed Kalispell to dominate the West the past five seasons. Along with Glacier’s 4-0 start this season, one of the two Kalispell programs has won the Western AA in three of the last four seasons. Of the seven seasons since the schools split, both have made the playoffs five times. In the last three seasons, the two schools have had front-row players named first-team all-state 10 times.
“There’s been a lot of height in the Valley,” Harkins said. “Both schools are working on developing into the staying at the top of the conference as much as we can.”
Glacier came into this season noticeably stronger after losing just three seniors to graduation from the team that finished fourth at state.
“They’ve worked so hard for the past two years,” Harkins said.
“They’ve been in our applied fitness class, our summer conditioning. I was watching some video from last year, and we have a majority of the same kids, and I said, ‘These are not the same kids.’ We are just physically a lot stronger than we were a year ago.”
It remains to be seen whether this crop of Kalispell hitters can reach the lofty height of the last class. Many of Glacier’s players compete in basketball in the winter or track in the spring and miss out on the club volleyball season where much of Division I recruiting is done.
What is certain is that the Valley is becoming a hotbed for volleyball talent. And where it ends up tends to swing (pardon the pun) Kalispell’s high school rivalry.
“When we dominated the series for a couple of years, we had some big kids,” Wilcox said.
“You get that now and then. Who knows what that will be like this year or the year after?”
Joseph Terry is a sports reporter and columnist for the Daily Inter Lake. He can be reached by phone at (406) 758-4463 or by email at jterry@dailyinterlake.com.