Polson overcomes tough third games to get wins
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LIBBY — The Lady Pirates kept their winning streak rolling last week as they picked up a win at Stevensville Tuesday before picking up their second conference victory at Libby Thursday.
Coming off a tournament championship in Columbia Falls, the Lady Pirates travelled to Stevensville Tuesday to face a tough Lady Yellowjacket squad in a nonconference battle.
Still riding the high from Columbia Falls, the Lady Pirates looked dominant in the opening game Tuesday, breezing past Stevensville 25-13. After picking up a 25-20 win the second game, Polson saw things go a little differently in the third game.
Lady Pirate mistakes led to Stevensville points as the Yellowjackets built a lead as large as nine before Polson began fighting its way back into the game.
“I just can’t quite figure it out,” Polson head coach Jan Toth said. “It’s like we are making all of our mistakes in a single game. Everything that can possibly go wrong does go wrong.”
Polson was able to fight back and tie the contest at 18 but was unable to complete the comeback as Stevensville took game three, 25-21.
Game four was another close-fought battle, but is was Polson who finally came away with a 28-26 win to take the match.
“Stevensville had a very tough team with big hitters that could pound the ball and a good defense,” Toth said. “It was really good for us to have to fight to get a win in a match like that. It was our good blocking and our experience on offense that were able to get us through.”
Polson finished the match with 13 blocks against the Yellowjackets, led by five each from Sallie Sams and Riley Kenney.
Sams also led the way with 17 kills while Breanne Kelley added 12 for Polson. Kayla Duford recorded 39 assists to lead the team while Kelley led in digs with 15.
It was very much the same story Thursday evening as the Lady Pirates traveled to Libby to face the Lady Loggers.
Polson jumped out to dominating wins in games one and two (25-16, 25-18) but once again had trouble in the third game of the match.
Libby used well-placed serves to jump out to a quick 9-0 lead in the third game and continued to lead 14-3 when Polson was forced into calling a timeout to regroup. The Lady Pirates made a strong comeback effort but fell in game three, 23-25.
“So far, in the ones we have lost this year, we have beaten ourselves,” Toth said. “There was a point in Libby where they had eight straight aces on us and there was nothing we could do but fight through it and we did a great job doing just that.”
