Valkyries top Maidens, Lady Wardens in doubleheader on the road

The Valkyries volleyball team officially started its season Saturday with back-to-back matches in Ronan against the Maidens and the Deer Lodge (Powell County) Lady Wardens, both of which Bigfork was victorious in.

The Vals took on Ronan first, and beat them 25-9, 25-20 and 25-10.

“They did well,” said Bigfork head volleyball coach Tracy Wicklund of her team. “This is the team that we really need to make sure we really keep our intensity up with. They aren’t as strong of a team as some of the others that we play against, so we let down and play to their level sometimes. But, we need to keep playing tough.”

Bigfork tallied 17 aces during the three games against Ronan, led by senior Taylor Peck, who accounted for 10.

“The serving was awesome,” Wicklund said. “They kept putting good serves into them and did a great job.”

Peck also led in set assists with 17 of the team’s 18. The Vals made 12 kills — four of which senior Melissa VanDerveer was credited with and three of which sophomore Alanis Stallknecht completed. Stallknecht also had four of the team’s 12 digs, while senior Amber McDaniel had three.

Fellow sophomore Tessa Robertson was solid at the net and made two of the team’s five blocks.

The Lady Wardens gave the Vals some tougher competition in the late game.

“They have some hitters on their team and they’re fast,” Wicklund said. “It was a different tempo than what we had coming off of our previous game (with Ronan), so we handled it.”

Bigfork won the first two games, both ending with a score of 25-23.

Deer Lodge fought back and won the third game 25-23.

“We had a lull in our passing at one point (during the third game), and we found a spot we needed to work on, so we adjusted our passing,” Wicklund said. “Deer Lodge didn’t want to be done yet, so they were fighting really hard to keep up with us.”

Refusing to give up the match, Bigfork beat the Lady Wardens 25-18 in the fourth game to take the overall win.

“We did a really good job of keeping our intensity up,” Wicklund said. “We kept the momentum on our side. We hit a little bump in the road and the girls did a good job of pulling it back to our side.”

Peck was again the aces leader with five of the team’s 10. She also had seven of Bigfork’s 14 set assists. The Vals had 15 successful kills and 50 digs. VanDerveer made 14 of those digs and Stallknecht was responsible for 10.

Robertson was again the leader at the net, making both of Bigfork’s blocks.

“Tessa has been doing a really good job at the net,” Wicklund said. “(Against Deer Lodge) Tessa did a great job of intimidating their hitter, so that helped a lot. Also, we were scrapping really well and getting a lot of balls that way.”

The Vals have a busy weekend ahead, but in the meantime Wicklund is using their practices to tweak some areas of their game.

“There’s still some stuff we need to work on,” Wicklund said. “It was good to get a couple of games in and play against Deer Lodge, who gave us some good experience. We have some tough competition coming up, and the girls are going to have to keep playing hard. I think the girls are learning that we have to stay playing intense at all times.”

Bigfork hosts Eureka (Lincoln County) Thursday for its home opener, and the following day the Vals travel to Florence.

On both days the C-Squad plays at 4 p.m., followed by the junior varsity at 5:30 p.m. and the varsity at 7 p.m.

The Eureka match will be the Valkyries’ first conference match of the season. Florence, Deer Lodge and Ronan all play in District 6B, while Eureka and Bigfork are in District 7B.