Vals win 2 more; second in conference

By JORDAN DAWSON / Bigfork Eagle

The Vals kept their winning season going last week beating Columbia Falls on Friday night and Ronan on Saturday night.

Bigfork won their match against Ronan in three games, 25-19, 25-18 and 25-21.

Rachael Luckow had 13 set assists, 11 aces and four kills. Roxy Thurman had 12 digs, nine kills and three aces. Emily Hardman had 10 digs and five kills. Claire Wilken had 12 set assists, seven digs and three aces. Jill Hamilton had six kills and six digs.

"Ronan is a very athletic group of kids that keep the ball off the floor," said head volleyball coach Yvonne Peck. "We played very sluggish and did not terminate balls from our offense as well as I would like to have, but we served very well and had 21 service aces. Rachael led us with 11 in three games. I was very happy with the balance in kills with six athletes recording kills and five with at least four."

Friday night the Vals took on the Kats and won in four games, 25-6, 26-17, 23-25 and 25-12.

"We came out strong the first game against Columbia Falls and let down very quickly in the second game," Peck said. "We got down 2-10, 4-15 before we fought our way back with service aces by Claire Wilken, three kills by Roxy Thurman and two blocks by Jill and Rachael. The second run came while Roxy had three service aces and Emily Hardman had a solo block."

Wilken had 18 set assists. Thurman had 11 kills, seven aces, two solo blocks and one block assist. Hardman had seven kills and four blocks. Luckow had eight set assists, five kills and two block assists. Hamilton had six kills, seven digs and two block assists. Mallery Knoll had eight digs, five kills and two aces.

"I was very happy with how they fought their way back in," Peck said. "We broke down defensively in the third game and were unable to finish in three games."

The back-to-back wins brought the Vals' conference record to 7-2, and helped them to hold on to second place in the conference behind Libby who is 8-1. The Vals play their last conference game today, Nov. 6, at home against Polson, who is ranked third with a 6-3 record. The Vals host Hamilton Saturday for their last regular season game.

Junior varsity

The junior varsity won both of their matches as well, beating Columbia Falls in four games and Ronan in three.

Against Ronan Kristen Woll had 11 digs and five aces. Nikie Bilodeau had five aces and four kills.

In their game against the Kats, Hannah Barrett had nine set assists and four kills. Taylor Peck had eight set assists. Woll had eight aces. Jenna Egdorf had five aces and five kills.