Volleyball: Lady Loggers down Eureka in 4

The Libby High School volleyball team stepped out of the conference on Thursday to take a 25-11, 25-22, 21-25, 25-13 victory over Eureka.

“We came out strong in the first one, finished strong in the last one and struggled in between,” LHS coach Cindy Ostrem-Johnston said. “We haven’t played a match yet where we’ve played consistently all the way through. We have a hard time recovering from mistakes and need to learn to shake those off and focus.”

Eureka, one of the stronger teams in Class B, made things interesting in the second and third games of the match. But players like Jackie Mee and Alex Kulbeck were just too much for the Lions to handle.

“Jackie had 20 kills and she was playing part-time with a shoulder that’s bothering her,” Ostrem-Johnston said.

Mee had a stellar .655 attack percentage to go with those hits as well as three blocks, 91 percent serving and a team-high 2.77 serve-receive ratio. Kulbeck finished with four ace serves, 91 percent serving, six kills and two blocks.

Besides Mee and Kulbeck, Libby’s Alysha Martin had seven kills and Logan Best finished with six. At the service line, Katie Emery had two blocks and five aces with a 92-percent serving success rate. Evi Cernick contributed four ace serves and 94 percent to go along with 35 set assists.

In the digs department, Kulbeck led with 13, Martin had 12 and both Malena Sweet and Mee had nine. Best and Martin had a 2.05 and 2.00 serve-receive ratio, respectively.

Libby followed with a rare weekend off.

“It was nice to have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “I think the girls were ready for it … I was ready for it.”

Ostrem-Johnston said the rest would provide time for some bumps and bruises to heal, including Mee, Sweet and Kim Tangen.

The Loggers do get busy again this week, however, with a Tuesday match scheduled against Class AA Glacier. Libby heads to Polson on Thursday and will participate in the MCPS Tournament in Missoula on Friday and Saturday.