Valkyries take it to the net

The Bigfork Valkyries volleyball team continued to have success last week, beating both Plains and Troy in three matches each.

The girls traveled to Troy on Saturday where they took down the Lady Trojans 25-21, 25-23 and 25-21.

"This game was against a better Troy team than we experienced in the first match with them at home," said Tammi McDaniel, Bigfork High School head volleyball coach. "Troy played pretty scrappy, so we were faced with the challenge of really having to set the ball around to get the defense out of position and the girls were successful in doing that."

Senior Claire Wilken led the Valkyries with 18 assists, seven digs, four blocks, three aces and three kills. Emily Hardman, also a senior, had 20 kills and five digs.

Junior Mallery Knoll added 12 kills, 11 digs and seven blocks.

Sophomore Taylor Peck had 12 assists and three digs.

Melissa VanDerveer, also a sophomore, had seven blocks and five kills. Senior Kelly Deaton contributed six digs.

"We finally had a better blocking game as we had a team total of 17, with Melissa racking up seven of them," McDaniel said. "Claire managed to have some pretty impressive stats in all the categories. The girls were running pretty low on energy, though, with all the sickness that is going around school. Hopefully, they will be back to normal this week against Florence for senior night."

The Vals also hosted Plains last week, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, and won that match, 25-12, 25-13 and 25-9.

"It was a quick three and out," McDaniel said. "I was able to give a couple of junior varsity players, Hannah Barrett and Ariel Stallknecht, a few minutes of playing time, though, so that is always a plus."

Wilken led the Vals this game as well. She had 10 assists, six aces and three digs.

Hardman contributed nine kills and three digs.

Knoll had six kills, VanDerveer had six aces and three kills, Peck had six assists, and Deaton had five digs.

Bigfork (9-1, 11-2) hosts Florence tonight, Oct. 22, for senior night, which is their last regular season match before heading into the district playoffs Oct. 29-31 in Troy in which they will be the number one seed.