Lady Dogs sink Pirates for homecoming win

The Lady Bulldogs put on a strong showing during Thursday’s homecoming win over Polson (2-4).

Whitefish (4-2) went 26-24, 25-15, 19-25, 25-12 to win 3-1 over the Northwest A opponent.

Junior Cailyn Ross led the Lady Dogs with 10 of the team’s 35 kills, and senior Mirielle Kruger added two blocks. Haley Fyant had 16 kills for Polson.

Head coach Jackie Fuller said the support from the bleachers during the homecoming match meant a lot to the team’s win.

“I was happy. I was really thankful for our student body section and our parent fan base that was there, I felt they pushed us to work even harder out on the floor,” she said.

Now halfway through the season, Fuller said she likes where her team is at but still sees small room for improvement.

“I’m happy with the way we’re coming along, we’re making small strides every day to get better and that’s our goal. We still have areas that we must get better at, that would be our blocking and of course I’m always looking to get better on defense,” she said. “We’ve changed our lineup a couple times and I think it’s looking really good right now, now the idea is just to develop some consistency.”

One of the keys to the team’s success, Fuller noted, is the ability of any given player to step up on any given night. Some nights it’s Ross, others it’s Libby Nagler or Kate Doorn, and that variety makes the team hard to match up against.

“Every night it’s somebody different for us, it may be practice or it may be a match. That’s the best part of our team, there really isn’t anybody to key on because there’s so many of them that do so many great things. Right now I think that’s our biggest plus, we’ve got so many girls who can come in and do so many different things for us,” she said.

The Lady Dogs host a doubleheader against Corvallis (4-1) and Hamilton (1-6) on Saturday. Whitefish split against those teams earlier in the season, beating Hamilton but falling to Corvallis.

“They’re a great team,” Fuller said about Corvallis. “They’ve got a great program down there and we’ve got to come out ready to go.”

The first match against Corvallis is at 1 p.m at Whitefish High School, followed by the evening match against Hamilton at 6 p.m.

Kills—Polson 39 (Haley Fyant 16), Whitefish 35 (Cailyn Ross 10); Assists—Polson 35 (Kaelyn Smith 12), Whitefish 34 (Libby Nagler 20); Digs—Polson 68 (Kyler Lundeen 30), Whitefish 69 (Kylie Larsen 18); Blocks—Polson 5 (Lauren Lefthand 2), Whitefish 3 (Mirielle Krueger 2); Aces—Polson 6 (Hannah Fryberger 3), Whitefish 6 (Kylie Larsen 2).