Lady Loggers spike Whitefish
<p>At the net blocking with Hailley Moe, left, and Staci Regh third game vs. Whitefish Sept. 13, 2014.</p>
The first 10 minutes of the Lady Loggers’ match against Whitefish on Saturday looked like they were in for a long night, but they quickly bounced back and dominated the Lady Bulldogs from the service line, winning 23-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-17.
After falling behind 14-4 in the first set, Staci Regh turned things around with three straight aces and the Loggers were on their way back. They actually took a 22-21 lead before Whitefish salvaged the set with two late kills from Myndi Holbrook.
Coach Cindy Ostrem-Johnston pointed to the comeback as a key. “I think our momentum carried into the next sets where we settled down and took command, although I never did really relax. Whitefish tried to wear us down by playing some solid defense and keeping the ball alive.”
From that point on, the Loggers, who recorded 31 aces (nine by Hannah England) and 41 kills (10 by Hailley Moe), controlled the match. The Loggers fell behind briefly in the third set 6-8, but Bailie Rosling ran off a string of seven straight points including three aces of her own to propel the Loggers to the win.
“We really used our aggressive serving to our advantage, keeping them out of their offense when we didn’t score on them,” Ostrem-Johnston said. The Libby Coach also praised Cierra Stewart, who Ostrem-Johnston said is fitting in nicely in the middle hitter position, putting down six kills.
“Mahalah Wedel, Hailey Craig, and Dayln Germany, were very efficient on serve receive,” Ostrem-Johnston said.
Columbia Falls 3, Libby 0
A slew of unforced errors led to a three-set loss for the Lady Loggers in their conference opener against the Columbia Falls Wildkats on Thursday.
Libby dug themselves a hole in the first two sets, falling behind 11-2 and 8-2, before climbing back into contention, but they couldn’t overcome several untimely miscues and lost 25-19 and 25-20. The Loggers got off to a better start in the third set but were hurt by four service errors and the Wildkats finished off the match 25-19.
Ostrem-Johnston saw a team plagued by the jitters.
“We played hard, but played uptight and committed too many unforced errors,” Ostrem-Johnston said. “The errors seemed to happen at very inopportune times. It was not the same relaxed, confident Logger team that I watched at the Northwest vs. Southwest Tourney.”