Lady Loggers down Eureka for homecoming victory
<p>Hailley Moe, left and Staci Regh preparing to block vs. Whitefish Sept. 13.</p>
It wasn’t a work of art, but the Lady Loggers opened the week’s homecoming festivities with a three-set win over the Lady Lions from Eureka.
Libby took advantage of a host of errors to down the Lady Lions 25-20, 25-18, 25-22 and raise their overall record to 5-2. Libby took control during the middle of the first two sets, but had to come back from a nine point deficit in the third to pull it out. After falling behind 15-6 the Loggers went on a 14-2 run behind the strong serving of Hannah England, Hailey Craig, and Mahalah Wedel and four kills from Devon Gallagher.
Coach Cindy Ostrem-Johnston hoped her team took some confidence from the match, “They should have proved to themselves that they can come back from any deficit. It was especially impressive that they were able to take the third set after being down 6-15.”
The Loggers had a harder time mounting a consistent attack with the hit-and-miss pace of the game but they did manage 29 kills. Coach Cindy Ostrem-Johnston gave credit to the Lions, “Compliments to Eureka for putting up strong blocks and playing very scrappy defense. Even though we had our worst hitting performance of the year, with only seven more kills than errors, the players made up for it in other areas and grinded it out.” Hailley Moe had nine of the Loggers’ kills while nursing a sore shoulder suffered in a collision with Staci Regh over the weekend.
The Lady Loggers lead the Northwest A conference with 5.5 aces per set and 8.4 assists per set. Libby is clearly the most dominant serving team in the conference. For comparison, Columbia Falls is second in the confernece with 2.2 aces per set. Several Lady Loggers are standing out individually as well. England leads the conference with 1.5 aces per set. She is also third in the conference with 7.4 assists per set. Wedel is third in conference with four digs per set.
Ashley Walker and India Croucher had seven aces apiece to help lead the junior varsity team to a 25-11, 25-8, 15-9 victory. The varsity squad is off through the rest of homecoming week until the Missoula Tourney on October 10-11.
Kills – Eureka 18 (Amanda Peterson 8), Libby 29 (Moe 9); Assists – Eureka 15 (Courtney Lemer 7), Libby 29 (England 21); Digs – Eureka 60 (Elliott Peterson 17), Libby 48 (Wedel 16); Blocks – Eureka 6 (E. Peterson 4), Libby 3 (Cierra Stewart, Gallagher 2); Aces – Eureka 6 (Kaylee Karonsberger 3), Libby 9 (Wedel 3)