Vals fall short on rough road to state tourney

By JORDAN DAWSON / Bigfork Eagle

The Vals went into the Northwest A Divisional Tournament in Polson as the second seed, hoping to land a spot at state, but instead took third place for the third year in a row.

"The weekend was full of mixed emotions, highs and lows," said Bigfork head volleyball coach Yvonne Peck. "I am extremely disappointed that I was not able to get this group of girls to the state tournament. They have come a long way since Aug. 18."

The Vals struggled to beat Polson all weekend without success. Bigfork beat them during the last week of regular season play to secure second place in the conference, and send Polson down to third. But the matches didn't go in the Vals' favor this time.

During their first meeting Polson came out swinging and won the first two games, 25-18 and 25-19. Bigfork answered with two wins of their own, 25-19 and 25-19. The decisive fifth game went point-for-point until Polson took a small lead and finished it out on top, 15-9.

"I think our heads just weren't in it," said senior Jill Hamilton, of their first match against Polson.

Roxy Thurman had 20 kills and 25 digs during the upset. Mallery Knoll had 12 kills and 20 digs, Emily Hardman had two blocks and Claire Wilken had 23 set assists and four aces.

The loss put Bigfork into the loser's bracket where they faced Columbia Falls Friday evening and beat them in three games, 25-12, 25-15 and 25-14.

"You have to handle it like it's just another challenge," Hardman said. "We knew how we had to play in order to win. We just had to keep swinging."

The win, which took the Kats out of the tournament, boosted the Vals' confidence after their disappointing first match.

"We got a lot of free balls so we got to swing at a lot of things and that boosted our confidence," said senior Rachael Luckow.

Thurman had 13 kills and two blocks against the Kats. Hardman had 11 kills, 11 digs and three aces, Knoll had 14 digs and Luckow had 19 set assists.

The girls knew they had a long day ahead of them, but they were fueled by momentum from their win over Columbia Falls.

"We just have to forget who is across the net and play our game," Hamilton said on Friday night.

Saturday morning the Vals faced Ronan, who was fresh off of their first win of the season after beating Whitefish during the first day of the tournament. Bigfork didn't let them by, though. They beat Ronan in three quick games, 25-15, 26-24 and 25-15.

Knoll had 34 digs, Wilken had 22 set assists, and Thurman had 16 kills in the match, which left Ronan in fourth place.

In the consolation game, where they faced Polson again, the Vals let their guard down and allowed the Pirates to take a commanding lead and win the first two games, 25-20 and 25-18. Bigfork fought back in the third game and barely snuck by with the win, 26-24. For a minute it looked like the Vals were getting a do-over from the previous day's loss. But they couldn't keep up with the Pirates who racked up a sizable lead in the fourth game. The Vals didn't give up though, making a valiant effort to play catch up, but fell short in a 25-21 loss.

"Polson plays really well, especially in their own gym, like most teams do," Knoll said. "I think we could've beat them but we just didn't play as well as we should have. I think we took ourselves out of it. When we get down we have trouble picking ourselves back up."

Knoll had 30 digs, Thurman had 30 digs and 12 kills, Wilken had 23 set assists and Hamilton had four blocks and six aces.

"We didn't' play our best," Thurman said. "We hung in their pretty well, but it could've gone better. I think we could've loosened up a little. A lot of us went into the games scared and Polson came out and outworked us."

Polson went on to play Libby for the championship and fought hard through five games, but came up short in the fifth game 15-11. Polson and Libby will represent the NWA conference at the state tournament this weekend in Bozeman.

"We gave ourselves a real shot of qualifying for state and fell short against a very good, athletic, Polson team," Peck said. "Unlike many members, these young ladies competed very well, very hard and with a great deal of dignity and class. They complete a season 10-4 in Northwest A and 12-4 overall and I am proud to be their coach."