Libby spikers take third place at state tourney

At courtside during a winner’s bracket match against Billings Central on Thursday night, Cindy Ostrem-Johnston experienced a wave of emotions while her Lady Loggers battled in an attempt to reach the Class A tournament’s semifinals.

Libby had defeated Belgrade in its opening match earlier in the day in a five-game thriller, 21-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-22, 15-11. But could the Lady Loggers come up with enough gas in the tank to survive another marathon?

“You talk about a gut-wrenching, heart-pounding, heart-stopping emotional match, holy cow,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “I had a migraine headache, I was shaking, I had tears, I was so happy. I was so proud of them that we got through that one. It was tense the whole time.”

Libby defeated Billings Central, 25-22, 19-25, 25-23, 19-25, 17-15 to clinch at least third place and a shot on day 2 at defending state champ Lewistown.

“That was such a good feeling on Thursday night,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “We were in the semifinal match, we won our first two matches and got through those two five-gamers and came out on top. I was really proud.”

Indeed, the Lady Loggers turned heads on that opening day at the All-Class State Volleyball Tournament in Bozeman on the campus of Montana State University. Libby had streaks of inconsistent play to make things interesting. In the opener, accurate passing and good serving helped make up for troubles at the net.

 “The serving percentage and passing were real important to have in that match,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “It felt good to get that first tournament win. This was a new experience for all of these kids except Jackie (Mee) and Nichole (Newman).”

Stat leaders included Mee (5 aces, 22 kills, 23 digs), Jordan Refsland (19 assists), Alex Kulbeck and Katie Emery (2 blocks apiece), and Hoyer (23 digs).

In the night match against Billings Central, the pendulum of momentum swung back and forth on many occasions. Libby shined in the hitting department in the opening game behind Mee and Hoyer. In game 2, however, the Loggers struggled with several hitting errors. Libby settled down in the third game for the win but again had miscues in the fourth.

That set up the stress-filled fifth game, which goes to 15 instead of 25. At one point, Billings Central held a 12-9 advantage.

But Mee came up big with a couple of kills and Emery had a timely block to help Libby to a 13-12 advantage. Billings Central then hit into the net and the Loggers were up 14-12 and had the serve on match point.

The opponent wouldn’t go away, however, and tied the game, 14-14 and later, 15-15. Libby won the final two points on a huge kill by Hoyer and a block at the net by Kulbeck and Newman.

“It’s good, both our matches have been really, really close,” Mee said after the first two matches. “It’s kind of been a confused excited.”

Getting exceptional play from everyone on the team proved to be very important with opponents giving Mee a lot of attention.

“It was tough over there because every team knew she was our go-to player and that made it tough for her,” Ostrem-Johnston said about Mee. “They put up a big block that she’s not used to seeing. It frustrated her, especially in the last two matches.”

Mee said LHS had trouble early with blocking against Central’s hitters. But that issue was resolved.

“We started blocking better and that probably won it in the end,” she said.

Stat leaders in the win over Billings Central included Evi Cernick (2 ace serves), Hoyer (2 ace serves), Mee (22 kills), Refsland (28 assists), Kulbeck (6 blocks) and Alysha Martin (21 digs).

On Friday, the Lady Loggers had high hopes of knocking off the tournament favorite.

“I was hoping it would take some of the pressure off going into the next matches knowing we’ve got at least a third-place trophy now,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “I was hoping it would relax them and they would go out and play ball with nothing to lose against Lewistown.”

Going to the match, Mee said, “We have to play like we have been. We need to stay aggressive and we should be fine.”

But the eventual state champions dominated in a 25-8, 25-13, 25-12 victory that took just 54 minutes.

“We never got it going against Lewistown,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “We played scared, nobody played well. Lewistown was a very tough team and they didn’t let up.”

Lewistown, whose official school name is Fergus, rolled in the opening game. Ostrem-Johnston hoped that the game 1 rout would settle her team down a bit while creating overconfidence in the opponent. Libby led 7-5 in game 2 but Lewistown countered and ended up winning handily. That carried over into the third game.

“They were solid in every category. They just do everything very well but we were hoping the pressure would get to them,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “But you have to put pressure on them first.”

Libby had a negative attack percentage in the match – a telling statistic of the Loggers’ struggles.

On the stat sheet, Libby leaders were Hoyer (team’s only ace serve, 14 digs), Mee (13 kills), Refsland (10 assists) and Newman (2 blocks).

On Saturday, LHS took on Miles City and with a victory, could get another shot at Lewistown in the championship match.

“I was hoping we would rebound back and really fight hard against Miles City and get our game back on and be playing in the state championship but that didn’t happen either,” Ostrem-Johnston said.

Miles City, aka Custer County High, took the win, 25-10, 25-22, 25-16.

Libby looked good early on and led 4-2. Miles City stuck close, however, and later led 12-10. Then the Cowgirls went on a 13-point run to end the game on a roll.

“We got stuck on 10 and lost 10-25, which is so unusual in rally-scoring volleyball,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “That shouldn’t happen, but it did. We didn’t recover from that.”

Miles City kept the scoring streak going and shot out to a 5-0 lead in game 2. Libby countered and played competitively but the hole was too big.

“We kept hitting into the net, hitting it out of bounds. We had a lot of hitting errors and didn’t move very well on defense,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “They were picking everything up and we were watching balls drop all around us.”

Stat leaders were Refsland (3 ace serves, 7 assists), Mee (10 kills, 13 digs) and Kulbeck (4 blocks).

Despite those last two losses, Libby had still pulled off a notable accomplishment at state.

“The only thing that was disappointing was that we felt second was realistic for us if we would’ve played well against Miles City,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “I’m very proud of the girls – the season we had this year especially losing four key players and not knowing what to expect this season.”

Ostrem-Johnston said she told her players that they had no reason to hang their heads.

“I told them, ‘you can’t take away the fact that you’re conference champions, divisional champions and finished third at state,’” she said. “I think they exceeded a lot of people’s expectations.”

Hoyer, Meha, Newman and Refsland have played their final matches for the Loggers. But a solid nucleus returns next season for another shot.

“We lose four again but have eight kids that went over there and got tournament experience,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “Hopefully they will all return.”

(Jenna Cederberg of the Lake County Leader contributed to this story).

Class A State Tournament

Thursday’s Results

Libby def. Belgrade, 21-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-22, 15-11

Serving-Aces (13) – Mee 5, Martin 3.

Serve Percentage (89%) – Mee 100, Martin 93, Hoyer 91.

Kills (58) – Mee 22, Kulbeck 13, Meha 9.

Attack Percentage (.144) – Kulbeck .306, Mee .250.

Assists (43) – Refsland 19, Cernick 14.

Blocks (3) – Kulbeck 2, Emery 2.

Digs (72) – Hoyer 23, Mee 23, Meha 10.

Serve-Receive Ratio (2.51) – Mee 2.82, Meha 2.64, Newman 2.38, Martin 2.14.

Libby def. Billings Central, 25-22, 19-25, 25-23, 19-25, 17-15

Serving-Aces (2) – Cernick, Hoyer.

Serve Percentage (88%) – Martin 100, Hoyer 93, Refsland 93, Mee 93.

Kills (54) – Mee 22, Hoyer 17, Meha 6, Kulbeck 5.

Attack Percentage (.287) – Mee .459, Hoyer .412, Meha .238.

Assists (52) – Refsland 28, Cernick 16.

Blocks (8) – Kulbeck 6, Newman 3, Emery 3.

Digs (76) – Martin 21, Hoyer 14, Mee 13.

Serve-Receive Ratio (2.15) – Mee 2.50, Martin 2.30, Meha 2.08.

Friday’s Results

Lewistown def. Libby, 25-8, 25-13, 25-12

Serving-Aces (1) – Hoyer.

Serve Percentage (85%) – Meha 100, Meha 100, Martin 100.

Kills (19) – Mee 13, Hoyer 2, Kulbeck 2.

Attack Percentage (-0.73)

Assists (16) – Refsland 10, Cernick 4.

Blocks (3) – Newman 2.

Digs (42) – Hoyer 14, Mee 11, Meha 6.

Serve-Receive Ratio (2.21) – Mee 2.60, Hoyer 2.21, Meha 2.20.

Saturday’s Results

Miles City def. Libby, 25-10, 25-22, 25-15

Serving-Aces (3) – Refsland 3.

Serve Percentage (92%) – Refsland 100.

Kills (24) – Mee 10, Hoyer 4, Newman 4, Best 2.

Attack Percentage (0.41) – Best .667, Newman .300.

Assists (18) – Refsland 7, Cernick 6.

Blocks (7) – Kulbeck 4, Mee 3.

Digs (51) – Mee 13, Martin 11, Hoyer 9.

Serve-Receive Ratio (2.08) – Mee 2.55, Hoyer 2.00.