Troy drops 2 straight in league

It’s true that physical ability plays a big role in the outcome of a sporting event. But many coaches will tell you that the mental component can make or break you.

In a Thursday evening meeting between Troy and Eureka, the head game seemed to become a major factor in the Lady Lions’ 25-19, 25-6, 25-8 sweep over the home team.

“That’s the first time we’ve seen that this year,” Troy High School coach Sandra Jansma said about Eureka’s domination. “We definitely psyched ourselves out. In the second and third games, we came out down on ourselves. We had 24 errors between hitting, serving and receiving. That’s a game right there.”

Troy (2-2) appeared to match up fairly well with the visitors in the early going. The Trojans shot out to a 6-1 lead and then held their ground after Eureka recovered. Troy took an 18-16 lead when a Eureka hit sailed long.

“We came out with a lot of intensity, pumped up ourselves pretty good,” Jansma said. “In the second and third games, they were just upset from the first game and really took a dive.”

The dive materialized to the tune of a 9-1 run by the Lions to end game 1. Troy wasn’t the same the rest of the night with unforced errors, serve reception problems and poor passing.

“In a clutch situation, we just kind of seized up,” Jansma said. “We’re young; a lot of these girls are juniors and do not have a lot of varsity experience.”

Indeed, the Lions have a much more seasoned lineup. The entire varsity lineup is made up of seniors and juniors – five of those players in their last year. Rhonda Hammond’s squad serves well, has powerful hitters in Tayler Holder and Carly Hammond and an imposing presence at the net in 6-foot middle hitter Briann Linnell.

“The team they were playing is a very high performance team,” Jansma said. “Our communication just fell apart.”

Eureka scored 14 straight points in one stretch of the second game with Casey Armstrong at the service line. Linnell had back-to-back ace blocks during the run.

The Lions carried over that momentum into the third game and never trailed.

“I know they never want to perform like that again,” Jansma said of her team.

Kristin Parks shared the team lead in three of four major statistical categories – ace serves (1), kills (2) and digs (4). Ashley Paasch also had an ace serve and four digs. Molly Harpole had two kills. Alyssa Olds had three set assists.

On Saturday, Mission took a five-game match win over Troy, 16-25, 25-23, 25-19, 14-25, 15-6.

Paasch had three of the team’s 10 ace serves to go along with a team-high five digs. Harpole led in kills with 10 while Alicia Anderson added five. Olds had all 21 set assists for the Trojans and four girls each recorded blocks – Harpole, Parks, Paasch and Ashley Suber.

Troy played Tuesday in Kalispell against Stillwater Christian in a match played after presstime. The Trojans host Thompson Falls on Thursday and head up to Eureka on Saturday.

Libby splits first 2 in league

When the Libby High School volleyball squad struggled with serving on Saturday at Polson, the Lady Loggers needed other areas of the team to come through.

Cindy Ostrem-Johnston’s girls did just that with an improved team performance at the net in a 25-23, 25-22, 17-25, 25-18 conference victory over the Pirates.

“That was one of the bright spots, that we did step it up a little bit there,” Ostrem-Johnston said about hitting. “We had a .263 attack percentage; that helped make up the difference for poor serving.”

As a team, the Loggers had 40 kills with 16 from Jackie Mee and 11 from Crysta Quinn. Mee and Nichole Newman had the top hitting percentages at .343 and .300, respectively.

“It was nice to have those first two wins because we struggled that third game,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “We couldn’t get out of a hole.”

At the service line, the Loggers had just an 81-percent success rate. Ostrem-Johnston said four starters struggled. Jordan Refsland had four of the team’s 10 aces and Devon Hoyer added three. Mee was consistent with 91-percent serving.

“The good thing about it is we got the win against Polson, who is looking like one of the better teams in the conference from what I’ve seen so far,” Ostrem-Johnston sad. “It was a good win for us.”

Libby had 37 set assists with Refsland recording 20 and Evianna Cernick finishing with 12. Mee and Katie Emery each had one block. Hoyer led in digs with 11 while Quinn had eight and Mee finished with seven.

The victory helped offset a loss that Libby suffered on Thursday at Bigfork. The Vals outlasted Libby in a close, five-game match, 23-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-21, 15-13.

“A few less errors could’ve changed the outcome of the match,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “We gave up a lot of points on unforced errors.”

Libby committed 26 hitting errors in the loss.

Refsland served 97 percent and had five aces, including a seven-point run and two five-point runs. Other top servers were Genesea Meha (94 percent, 5 aces), Mee (95 percent) and Hoyer (94 percent).

At the net, Mee had 25 kills and an exceptional attack percentage of .455. Quinn had 10 kills. The Loggers had 10 total blocks. Individually, Mee, Newman and Alex Kulbeck each had three.

Refsland had 19 set assists and Cernick finished with 18. Quinn led in digs with 12 while Mee added nine.

Libby (1-1 in conference) plays at Whitefish on Thursday and will host Columbia Falls in the home opener on Saturday.