Glacier rallies twice, stays alive at AA state volleyball
OZEMAN — Glacier volleyball coach Christy Harkins was grinning ear-to-ear in the hallways of Brick Breeden Fieldhouse late Friday night.
A long day was over, but the Wolfpack’s state tournament was not.
“I am smiling,” Harkins quipped. “I have a major headache, but I’m still smiling.”
Harkins and the Glacier Wolfpack won four sets while facing elimination and secured a new plaque for the school’s trophy case with thrilling five-set wins over Billings Skvyiew and Helena, with the second comeback even more dramatic than the first.
Glacier trailed Skyview two games to one in their afternoon match before recovering, then fell into a 2-0 hole against Helena, losing 25-15 in the second set. Between matches, Harkins gathered her team and liked immediately what she saw.
“It’s a little bit of, well, your back’s against the wall now,” she said of the huddle between the second and third games. “It’s definite desperation. Some real positive talk, though, compared to yesterday when we were down against Billings (Senior).
“Everyone here is good so you’re going to have to fight hard and that was the conversation today — learn from yesterday, get better, and they came out and did a good job of that in game three.”
The Wolfpack not only won the third game, they made a statement, blowing out the Bengals en route to a 19-25, 15-25, 25-12, 25-22, 15-9 win. Glacier never trailed in the decisive fifth set.
In their afternoon match, the ’Pack came back to beat Skyview 25-21, 18-25, 22-25, 26-24, 15-13.
Harkins credited some of her team’s resolve against Helena to their experience against the Falcons.
“It totally does (help),” she said. “It’s exhausting and it’s hard but it (helps) because that’s something we hadn’t really done well before. We hadn’t battled back in a lot of matches. We didn’t have to in a lot of them. We just didn’t have to, so to get over that hump a little earlier (Friday) was good.”
Glacier finished with 51 kills against Helena, led by Nikki Krueger’s 19. Kali Gulick added seven blocks in the late-night win and packed the ’Pack with 14 kills and five blocks against Skyview.
The wins guarantee Glacier will finish no worse than third at the state tournament, one year after failing to even qualify.
“I am so proud of them, I can’t even put into words how proud I am,” Harkins said. “(The) seniors worked so hard and battled through so much and had such high goals for themselves.”
The Wolfpack gets another crack at Senior today at 11 a.m. With a win, Glacier would advance to the state championship match against undefeated Missoula Sentinel at 1 p.m.
“I’m hoping that in 12 hours they’re going to turn around with some fight and be ready to up it and get another chance at Senior, who I thought we could have played better against (Thursday),” Harkins said.
Senior beat Glacier in four sets on day one of the tournament. Sentinel reached the championship match by sweeping Senior on Friday.
Loser-out
Glacier def. Billings Skyview 25-21, 18-25, 22-25, 26-24, 15-13
Kills - Skyview 51 (Jedera Liddell 15), Glacier 54 (Kali Gulick 14). Blocks - Skyview 10 (Jacey Reiter 7), Glacier 10 (Gulick 5). Assists - Skyview 48 (Ashley Jones 47), Glacier 50 (Ashley Montini 46). Digs - Skyview 62 (Tyler Fleury 30), Glacier 49 (Nikki Krueger 19). Aces - Skyview 7 (Briana Guse 4), Glacier 8 (Krueger 3).
Glacier def. Helena
18-25, 15-25, 25-12, 25-22, 15-9
Kills - Helena 34 (Taelyr Krantz 9, Sam Holeman 9), Glacier 51 (Nikki Krueger 19). Blocks - Helena 9 (Jamie Pickens 6), Glacier 11 (Kali Gulick 7). Assists - Helena 28 (Kendra Kloker 28), Glacier 45 (Ashley Montini 44). Digs - Helena 72 (Krantz 21), Glacier 42 (Brietta Russell 16). Aces - Helena 13 (Krantz 5), Glacier 6 (McKenna Johnson 3).