Libby spikers hope to take next step

The Lady Loggers are ready to get that sour taste out of their mouths.

Last season, Libby streaked into the playoffs with a perfect record against Class A competition and had hopes of hoisting the school’s first championship volleyball banner since 1997. But the dream ended with a fourth-place finish.

Head coach Cindy Ostrem-Johnson, now in her 16th season at the helm, believes her team has some pretty good talent coming back and if the youngsters can develop, the Loggers might just make another run.

“We graduated four solid seniors – two outside hitters, libero and setter,” Ostrem-Johnson said. “But we do have three returning players.”

Representing experience on the floor as the season arrives will be seniors Nichole Newman and Crysta Quinn along with junior Jackie Mee. Mee and Newman give the Loggers intimidating height at the net at 6-foot-1 and 5-11, respectively. Katie Emery, junior, is another 6-foot player on the roster.

As of Tuesday, the varsity included those players along with seniors Devon Hoyer, Genesea Meha and Jordan Refsland, and junior Evianna Cernick.

Ostrem-Johnson is still taking a good look at other girls competing for a spot on varsity, which is expected to include 10 athletes for the season-opening starter tournament on Saturday at Whitefish.

“We need to keep working hard in practice and maybe get an idea of where we’re at,” Ostrem-Johnson said. “It’s just going to take some time to see what combination of kids is best to have out on the floor and what offense we should be running.”

Mee made all-conference last season and Ostrem-Johnson said she will have an even bigger presence this year.

“I see her playing full rotation for us this year,” Ostrem-Johnson said. “We had a great libero that graduated and she (Mee) didn’t play a lot of back row last year. But she will this year. She’ll have some added responsibilities.”

Saturday’s tournament will give the Loggers five matches that are each limited to two games to 25.

“I’m not real concerned about where we end up placing,” Ostrem-Johnson said. “It’s hard to determine winners and losers in a tournament like that. We’re going over there to get experience and try to get more consistency. We’ll find out what our strongest rotations are.”

Libby will follow with a round-robin tourney at Glacier on Sept. 6 and the Tip-Off Tournament at Ronan on Sept. 12-13. Libby’s first varsity home appearance is scheduled for Sept. 27 against Columbia Falls.