Lady Bulldogs take down Stillwater 3-1 after slow start

The Lady Dogs came roaring back after dropping the first set to Stillwater Christian School on Thursday.

Following the disappointing 21-25 loss in the opening set, Whitefish took the next three by scores of 25-13, 25-11 and 25-20.

Luci Ridgeway was all over the stat sheet, notching four service aces, seven kills and five digs. Mary Akey also added four aces, and Kaiah Moore had five kills of her own.

As a team, the Lady Dogs combined for 8 aces, 19 kills, 3 blocks and 13 assists.

Head coach Addy Connelly said she was happy to see her team find their rhythm after the first set.

“We started off a little slow but then started putting some things together and took care of business,” she said, adding how much Ridgeway helped all over the court. “Luci really stepped up for us.”

Whitefish hosted Columbia Falls on Tuesday after press time. On Thursday they’ll travel to Ronan to take on the Maidens. Varsity play begins around 7 p.m.

Prior to facing Columbia Falls, Connelly said that matchup would come down to whether the Lady Dogs could take care of business on their own side of the net.

“We’re just going to really focus on taking care of what we can control on our side. Making sure our serves are up, over and in and making sure we can get them out of their system,” she said. “They’re pretty strong. They took Libby in three sets and we went five with Libby, so I think we have our work cut out for us.”

Aces — Stillwater 9 (Grace Anderson 4, Sydney McKerrow 2), Whitefish 8 (Luci Ridgeway 4, Mary Akey 4); Kills — Stillwater 29 (Abby Hudson 9, Selah Neumann 9), Whitefish 19 (Ridgeway 7, Kaiah Moore 5); Blocks — Stillwater 10 (Kayla Oyler 6, Hudson 4), Whitefish 3; Assists — Stillwater 21 (Sophia Sulzbacher 21), Whitefish 13 (Mikenna Ells 9); Digs — Stillwater 40 (McKerrow 18, Sulzbacher 13), Whitefish 14 (Ridgeway 5, Moore 3, Akey 3).