Lady 'Dogs battling inexperience, injury

Whitefish Pilot

This is the most inexperienced team Tim Olson has ever coached, but he still has full confidence that his Lady Bulldogs will be able to find success this year.

“Absolutely, we’re inexperienced at the varsity level,” Olson said. “But they feel they have something to prove. They’re hungry, they’ve been waiting for their shot. It was good to get them playing time and get their feet wet.”

The Whitefish girls, fresh off a season-opening win over Class AA Flathead on Dec. 9, couldn’t carry the momentum from that game into the weekend. They went 0-2 in Corvallis at the Northwest Southwest Tip-Off tourney, losing a thriller in the final minutes to Corvallis, 37-39, and going down 35-46 to Dillon.

Whitefish has been bitten by the injury bug early this season. Jessie Slaybaugh and Adele FauntLeRoy are both sidelined temporarily with injuries carried over from the fall sports season, and Beth Donovan went down with an ankle injury in the first game last weekend. She will be out two to three weeks, according to Olson.

“We are definitely injury plagued,” he said. “So some of the girls who are now playing varsity don’t even have JV experience.”

Only senior Kate Klundt has extensive varsity playing experience from last year. She had monster performances in both games, scoring 17 points against Corvallis and 25 against Dillon. She also went 9-for-10 from the free-throw line against the Lady Beavers.

Olson said Klundt has had to assume a different role on the court, as the Whitefish girls no longer have their sharpshooting point guard, Ashley Ferda, who left to join the University of Montana’s Lady Griz.

“Kate realizes that it’s not about her points and rebounds — it’s about winning games,” Olson said. “She’ll do whatever it takes. We’ve asked her to play different positions, we’ve asked her to play the point position, and she’ll play it.”

Seven different Lady Bulldogs scored against Corvallis, but it just wasn’t enough. Whitefish couldn’t find a way to stop Megan Auch, who had a game-high 19 points for the Lady Blue Devils.

Torie Powell had eight points against Corvallis, but only managed two against Dillon.

Olson said the win against Glacier was a big boost for team confidence.

“It was a great way to start the season,” he said. “You could see their confidence level really step up in practice.”

The Whitefish girls fell 57-40 to Glacier on Tuesday night. They host Stillwater on Thursday and Polson on Saturday.

Corvallis 5  13 12  9 - 39

Whitefish 8  7   6  16 - 37

Corvaliis – Whitney Henderson 10, Megan Auch 19, Kelsey Lemon 3, Jenny Wissenbach 2, Amber Bradshaw 1,, Amanda Jessop 2

Whitefish – Torie Powell 8, Kate Klundt 17, Karissa Demarcu 2, Olivia Nagler 2, Beth Donovan 1, Cullen 3, Paula Oliveira 4

Dillon     16 11  9  10 - 46

Whitefish 4 10 12  9  - 35

Dillon — Alex Brammer 4, G. Crabtree 3, Kerianne Richardson 2, Kasidy Fosse 3, Kelsi Nordahl 9, Jacy Suenram 8, Alyse Baker 4, Grace Zitzer 13

Whitefish — Torie Powell 2, Kate Klundt 25, Olivia Nagler 4, Cullen 2, O. Curtis 2