State Volleyball: C-Falls advances to final; Whitefish bows out
<p>Whitefish's Allie Schulz dives to dig out a ball at the net during the Bulldogs' comeback win against Havre at the state tournament in Bozeman on Friday. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
BOZEMAN — Whitefish coach Jackie Fuller knew what she wanted.
“Just give us six girls that are going to throw their heart and souls into everything,” she said.
“We’ll play with those six girls that want to do that.”
The venerable Bulldogs coach capped her first season back on the bench with a remarkable, season-saving comeback win over Havre before ultimately reaching the end of the road in a three-set loss to Corvallis.
Northwestern A rival Columbia Falls, meanwhile, ground out a five-set win over Butte Central and advance to today’s championship match at the Class A state volleyball tournament at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.
While the Wildkats (18-3) sit one win away from an unexpected state title, it was Fuller’s Bulldogs whole stole the show with a morning comeback that rivaled Columbia Falls’ wild rally and win over Billings Central on Thursday.
Playing in the first match of the day, Havre annihilated Whitefish 25-9 in the first set and, despite a late Bulldogs push, comfortably won the second set, 25-19.
Between games, the always-colorful Fuller loudly pleaded with her team, saying at one point “there are going to be six people on that floor that never, ever give up.”
The message must have resonated, because Whitefish won the third set, 25-18, the fourth set, 25-23, and the fifth, 15-11 to shock the Blue Ponies (14-10).
“Strategically, there was nothing,” Fuller said when asked what adjustments her team made.
“Havre’s a great ballclub and they were outhustling us.”
Senior Allie Schulz led a very balanced Whitefish offense in the win with 10 kills and 21 assists. The Bulldogs also got five blocks, seven kills and two aces from sophomore Cailyn Ross.
Whitefish (13-8) lost to Corvallis just a couple hours later, 25-15, 25-19, 25-23 to see their season end.
But for a young Bulldogs team that graduates only Schulz, the future appears bright.
“I think (getting to and winning a match in the tournament) can do a lot for us,” Fuller said.
“What’s going to be the sign, is what do they do after this. Tomorrow starts their conditioning — we’ve got to get bigger, we’ve got to get stronger and we’ve got to get faster.
There’s going to be a lot of hard work ahead of them.”
Fuller also doused Schulz with praise.
“Allie was just a great inspiration, she never came out one match for us, never came out one game,” she said.
“If it wasn’t for Allie Schulz we wouldn’t be where we are today. She came into our program as our only senior and worked her tail off.”
As for sudden state title favorite Columbia Falls, the Western division’s third seed in the tournament, a weekend of revenge steamrolled on.
One night after avenging a Western divisional tournament loss to Corvallis, the Wildkats reversed their other Western divisional tournament loss with a 23-25, 25-23, 25-19, 14-25, 15-13 win over Butte Central.
Columbia Falls will meet either Butte Central or Corvallis again today at 1 p.m. If the Wildkats win one of a possible two matches, they’ll head home as state champs.
Kaitlyn Casazza led the Wildkats with 16 kills. Kiara Burlage added 15 and Morgan Stenger notched 13. Columbia Falls also has only one senior on the roster and, if it can complete the run today, would be the all-class tournament’s most unlikely champion, having lost three of its last six matches entering this week.
If Columbia Falls loses today at 1 p.m., the two teams would immediately rematch in a winner-take-all contest.