Kats post wins over Polson, Bigfork
Breanna Hopper (15) appears to score a goal while defended by Polson's Tara Johnson, but the score was waved off because Hopper was called for being offside. Chris Peterson photo
By JOE SOVA / Hungry Horse News
Chalk one up for Dad.
In a soccer rematch of head coaches in the family, it was Greg Trenerry's Columbia Falls squad that earned the win over daughter Hauna Trenerry's Bigfork team on Tuesday in Bigfork. The Wildkats scored three first-half goals and held on for a 3-2 victory.
Coupled with Saturday's 2-1 home-field win over Polson, the Kats are 2-3-1 in the Northern A Conference and 2-5-1 overall. CFHS lost to Libby 3-1 last Thursday in Libby.
The first time that the Kats and Valkyries met, on Sept. 20, the match resulted in a 2-2 draw.
Bigfork took a 1-0 on an "own goal" eight minutes into the rematch, but the Kats responded with three goals during a 23-minute span. McKenzie Kiser scored in the 14th minute, then McKenzie Reeve found the net about five minutes later, assisted by Elyse Gordon. Cortney White scored on an assist from Elena Potter with three minutes left in the first half and the Kats led 3-1 at halftime.
With 11 minutes remaining in the match, Lena Olson scored for the Vals on a corner kick by Caitlin Charlebois, but CFHS held on for the win.
The win kept the Kats in contention for a state playoff berth, with two league games to go.
"I thought we played a great first half," Greg Trenerry said. "We were on our heels the second half. Bigfork came out hard on us."
CFHS took an early lead last Thursday against homestanding Libby, but the Loggers went on to post a 3-1 victory.
McKenzie Kizer found the net eight minutes into the match, giving the Kats a 1-0 lead, but the Loggers came back with three unanswered tallies to take the win.
Kats goalkeeper Niesha Thompson was credited with 15 saves. Christina Schilling had six for Libby.
CFHS earned its first victory of the season Saturday against Polson.
The Pirates scored on an own goal when a crossing pass by Sarah Devlin ricocheted off a Kats defender and into the net six minutes into the match. After several shots by Reeve went wide, Shay Grilley blasted a shot past Polson keeper Jacie Morrison for a 1-1 tie late in the first half. Reeve had the assist.
Breanna Hopper scored a great goal on a perfect free kick by Potter, but Hopper was ruled offside.
With 15 minutes to go, Reeve dribbled around two defenders and her shot from 18 yards out proved to be the game winner.
Kat spikers face Whitefish on Friday
By JOE SOVA
Hungry Horse News
Columbia Falls wraps up the first half of Northwestern A Conference volleyball play with a perennially tough opponent on Friday as the Wildkats play at Whitefish.
The Kats fell to 1-3 in league matches with losses to Bigfork and Libby last week. Bigfork, the conference leader, posted a 25-14, 25-15, 22-25, 25-11 in the CFHS gym. On Saturday, homestanding Libby swept the Kats, 25-9, 25-10, 28-26.
CFHS dropped the first two games to Bigfork, then pulled out a win in the third set. The Valkyries put it away with a game-five win.
"It wasn't our best volleyball match, for sure," Kats head coach Addy Hines said. "We came out flat in our first and second games. We didn't play too bad our third game."
The Kats had problems with service receive as the Vals had 19 service aces. While Bigfork had 10 blocks, CFHS had only three.
Alyssa Ladenburg had a strong all-around match for the Kats. She led the team with nine kills, 20 digs and three aces. Cedar Smith had 10 set assists.
For Bigfork, Mallory Knoll had eight kills and 20 digs. Claire Wilken dished out 15 assists, and Roxy Thurman had five blocks.
Smith rolled an ankle in Friday's practice and Hines said the senior will be sidelined for about two weeks. Other players have been ill.
Libby dominated the first two sets against the Kats, who stayed with the Loggers in the third game before losing by two points.
"We came alive in the third game," Hines said. "We were slow coming out. We were late on our blocks, but we did have some touches."
While Libby had 28 kills — 13 from Jackie Mee — the Kats managed only one block.
Serve receive again was a weakness as Libby had 24 service aces.
With Smith out of the lineup, the Kats went with a 5-1 offense against the Loggers and one setter — Cassidee Skiles, who had nine assists. Kayla DeWit had four kills, and Ladenburg had 11 digs.
CFHS is suffering from inconsistency since the Kats have had a number of combinations of players on the court.
"We haven't had the same lineup this year," Hines said. "We've had a lot of adversity… I hope we can make some progress in the right direction."
The Kats travel to Frenchtown for non-conference action Saturday.