Bigfork's Season Begins
By JORDAN DAWSON / Bigfork Eagle
The Bigfork High School volleyball team traveled to Whitefish last Saturday for the opening season tournament and came away with a 7-3 record.
"It was a well run tournament that we gained a lot of game experience in early in the season," said BHS head volleyball coach Yvonne Peck. "The play for most teams, including ours, was up and down, which is typical of this time of year and the youth of most teams. We were able to find some weaknesses as well as some things we are doing well this early in the season."
Bigfork won their first game, which was against Polson. The Vals were down 4 - 15, but managed to come back to win 25 - 24. The last kill to get to 25 was hit by Emily Hardman who went down with an ankle injury on the play. They lost the second game 19 - 25 with a scrambled line up, but Peck said she was happy with the kids' ability to compete in unfamiliar circumstances.
The girls bounced back and swept both their games against Ronan, 25-18 and 25-15. However, they were defeated in both games against Belgrade, 11-25 and 16-25.
"We were able to get our feet back under us against Ronan and work some kinks out," Peck said. "Belgrade came out serving and hitting hard and we really struggled. They took advantage of a couple serve receive rotations that we had trouble passing, as well as terminating the ball when we did get the pass. The first game we looked shocked, I felt we played harder in the second game against Belgrade and corrected some of our errors from the first game."
The girls took what they learned against Belgrade and had much greater success against Browning, even using less experienced players. Bigfork won the first game, 25-10 and the second 25-22.
"Against Browning we were able to get some of the older kids some rest and the younger girls some playing time," Peck said. "They did a nice job in game one and early on in game two. Late in game two our communication level went way down and we let Browning get back into the game, but they finished with a win."
Even after a full day of volleyball the Vals were still able to sweep their final competitors, Stillwater Christian, 25-8 and 25-24.
"Against Stillwater Christian we started the best we did all day and showed great teamwork and confidence," Peck said. "We let down in game two and scraped by with a win."
STATS:
GAME: POLSON
Kills (17) Roxie-6, Jill, Rachael - 3, Mallery, Emily - 2, Taylor - 1
Set Assts..(15) Rachael- 8, Mallery - 5, Taylor- 2
Ace (7) Roxie, Emily - 2, Mallery, Jill, Rachael - 1
Blocks (1) - Mallery, Taylor - 1 Block Assist
GAME: RONAN
Kills (12) Roxie-5, Jill- 4, Rachael, Mallery, Taylor - 1
Set Assts..(11) Rachael- 5, Mallery - 3, Taylor, Melissa, Jill- 1
Ace (9) Rachael, Jill - 3, Taylor-2, Roxie, Melissa - 1
Blocks (3) - Roxie, 2 solo, 1 ast, Melissa - 1 ast
GAME: BELGRADE
Kills (11) Roxie-5, Jill- 3, Jenna, Mallery, Taylor - 1
Set Assists (9) Rachael- 6, Mallery - 2, Jenna- 1
Ace (2) Rachael, Taylor-1
Blocks (2) - Jill 1 solo, 1 ast, Taylor - 1 ast
GAME BROWNING
Kills (19) Taylor -6, Roxie, Mallery- 4, Melissa - 2, Rachael, Jenna, Kristen - 1
Set Assts.. (11) Mallery, Taylor, Hannah - 3, Rachael - 2, Roxie, Melissa, Jill - 1
Ace (14) Rachael- 7, Mallery - 3, Roxie - 2, Hannah, Melissa - 1
Blocks (1) Roxie 1 solo
GAME STILLWATER
Kills (18) Jill, Roxie - 6, Mallery - 5, Rachael - 1
Set Assts. (17) Rachael - 8, Mallery -5, Taylor - 3, Jill - 1
Mahlum) Rachael - 6, Jill - 5, Melissa, Roxie - 1
Blocks (3) - Jill - 1 solo, 1 ast, Roxie - 1 solo, Rachael - 1 ast