Volleyball: Libby downs Whitefish, wins at Bonners Ferry

Posting a Northwestern A victory in the Whitefish gym is not an easy task. Plenty of teams have experienced heartache at that particular venue over the years. So, when Libby pulled off a three-game sweep over the Lady Bulldogs, it represented a rare occurrence.

“They draw a great crowd, they get loud and rowdy, they really get into it,” LHS coach Cindy Ostrem-Johnston said. “It felt pretty good to get out of there in three.”

The Lady Loggers’ 25-21, 25-20, 25-18 triumph got Libby off to a 1-0 start in the conference. As usual, Jackie Mee had another exceptional performance but the team as a whole also excelled – especially on the serve. Libby was successful on 89 percent of its serves, which was a season high.

“They didn’t go down without a fight,” Ostrem-Johnston said of the Bulldogs. “They played exactly as we expected. They came out playing very scrappy … and we needed to make some adjustments.”

In the third game, Libby was on cruise control with a 20-9 lead only to see the Bulldogs storm back. The fans started to chant, “It’s not over yet, it’s not over yet” but Libby survived the rally and finished them off.

Mee collected 14 of the team’s 32 kills and had a .370 attack percentage. Mee also had four ace serves, was good on 94 percent of her serves and had a team-best 2.13 serve-receive ratio. Alex Kulbeck contributed eight kills to go along with a .313 attack percentage, one block and three aces.

Evi Cernick had a big match with 24 set assists, 100-percent serving and a block. Logan Best had three ace serves and 93-percent serving along with nine digs and a 2.1 serve-receive ratio. Alysha Martin had a team-high 10 digs. Malena Sweet also did well in that department with seven digs.

Despite a late night on Thursday, Libby came out and practiced well before heading to Bonners Ferry, Idaho for a tournament on Saturday. The Loggers ended up taking first place. In the championship match, Libby downed Timberlake, Idaho, 25-12, 17-25, 15-10.

Mee was on top of her game with 51 kills on 90 attempts and a .478 attack percentage.

“We thought Jackie’s arm was going to fall off,” Ostrem-Johnston said.

In addition, Katie Emery had a breakthrough with her serving. She had serving streaks of 12, nine and seven points in three different matches and finished with 14 aces.

The tournament featured two pools with four teams each. Matches had two games to 25 with no cap and if a third was necessary, it was played to 15.

Libby opened with a 25-10, 22-25, 15-11 win over Clark Fork, Idaho, in a match slowed down by several interruptions. The Loggers then beat Timberlake, 25-22, 25-17 that showed the Loggers have the ability to stay composed and complete comebacks when necessary.

“We were shell-shocked by their serving and down 12-4,” Ostrem-Johnston said about the first game vs. Timberlake. “We got back in there and tied it at 14 and then beat them, 25-22. I was very happy with the comeback. In this case, I’m glad they didn’t count themselves out when they were down by eight.”

Libby followed up with a 25-13, 25-13 win over the Lake City, Idaho junior varsity and took first place in its pool.

In the medal round’s semifinals, the Lady Loggers played Bonners Ferry and rolled to a 25-16, 25-16 victory. That set up the rematch with Timberlake and the three-game win.

Joining Emery as top servers during the tournament were Cernick (10 aces, 93 percent serving), Mee (10 aces, 91 percent serving) and Best (10 aces). Kulbeck and Martin had 16 and 14 kills, respectively. Cernick, who is the team’s top setter, even collected six kills with no errors and a .429 attack percentage. Cernick collected 92 of the team’s 100 set assists on the day.

At the net, Kulbeck had six blocks, Mee had five and Emery finished with four. Best led the team in digs with 31, Mee had 28, Martin collected 26 and Sweet had 16. Mee had a 2.56 serve-receive ratio. Sweet came in at 2.45 and Alyssa Walker at 2.06 in that department. As a team, Libby was at 2.11 – one of its top passing performances of the season.

Libby’s JV also played in a tournament at Bonners Ferry and ended up taking runner-up honors.

The varsity girls will play host to Columbia Falls on Thursday in a conference matchup. The action begins at 4:15 p.m. with the younger teams to take the court first. Libby will play on Saturday at Ronan.