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Young Lady Pirates get big win at Columbia Falls
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COLUMBIA FALLS — Some teams rebuild, others reload.
While the loss of eight seniors would be a major setback for most high school volleyball teams, someone must have forgotten to tell that to the Polson Lady Pirates. With only four returning players from last year’s state tournament team, the Lady Pirates made a statement over the weekend by winning the Northwestern vs Southwestern Tip-off Volleyball Tournament in Columbia Falls.
The tournament is one in which the Lady Pirates have finished second the past three years and finally getting a win there is a much needed confidence booster, according to head coach Jan Toth.
“It was a pretty monumental win for us,” Toth said. “The girls have worked really hard over the years, and they deserved to finally win this tournament.”
Polson finished the tournament with a 12-2 record during the two days of play, but it was not all smooth sailing for the Lady Pirates.
According to Toth, she wanted to use the tournament as a chance to work with her lineup in order to find one that would work for her throughout the season. With younger players seeing a large amount of playing time in the tournament’s opening matches, the Lady Pirates were not exactly firing on all cylinders. After opening the tournament with a split against Frenchtown, the Lady Pirates picked up a pair of close wins over Hamilton, but split again in their third match against Stevensville.
“I was able to get a lot of kids into the first few matches on Friday, but that wasn’t working for us so I decided to go to a lineup that put strength at all positions and then bring in the younger players for defense,” Toth said. “We wanted to use this tournament as a building block for the season. We wanted to use it as a chance to find a lineup that showcases our strengths.”
The changes paid immediate dividends as the Lady Pirates crushed Anaconda in their next match, 25-12, 25-13.
Polson continued to play well in its final match Friday, downing Corvallis 25-9, 25-22.
“The girls finally came alive after they saw that all of the other teams were going to be tough,” Toth said. “The girls were sick of always finishing second here like we have done the past three years. We knew we had the talent to win it, the girls just had to concentrate and have some self confidence. We had some trouble at first, but once we got our serving down we just did what we had to do.”
Polson finished Friday in second place with a record of 8-2, one game behind first-place Dillion, which was 9-1 Friday.
The Lady Pirates went into Saturday knowing that they would likely face the daunting task of facing Dillion in back-to-back matches.
“We knew that Dillon was number one after the first day of play. We know how tough they were and that we had to stop their 6-foot-3 hitter,” Toth said. “It is really hard to beat a team twice in a row, especially when they have a chance to adjust their lineup against you. It was not an easy task at all.”
Toth’s answer to Dillon’s 6-foot-3 Faith Keck was to line up 5-foot-11 Sallie Sams against her. Sams and her teammates did an excellent job of shutting down Keck as the Lady Pirates defeated Dillon in the final pool game of the tournament, 25-21, 25-18, and then again in the championship game, 25-24, 25-22.
Senior Breanne Kelly led the way for the Lady Pirates in the tournament, recording a team-high 64 kills and 16 serving aces while adding 59 digs and five blocks in 14 games.
Sams finished with 49 kills, six aces and a team-high seven blocks while junior Riley Kenney added 26 kills, seven aces, a team-high 64 digs and two blocks. Setter Kayla Duford finished the tournament with 141 assists.
“This tournament was a great chance for us to try many different combinations of players to find a lineup that will be more constant,” Toth said. “I wanted to make sure to play all 12 of our girls during this tournament so that when I have to call on them later in the season, they will be ready for it. It’s just not fair to call on a kid with no varsity experience when the chips are down.”
While the tournament is a big victory for the Lady Pirates, Toth said they are not ready to rest on their laurels at this point.
“We can only go up from here,” she said. “We set a new goal each week and then go for it. We see what we need to build on and then we do it. Nothing is going to be given to us. We have to earn everything we get. We have to constantly keep improving if we want to be successful.” Toth said.
Summary
Polson split with Frenchtown
17-25, 25-19
Polson def. Hamilton
25-24, 25-22
Polson split with Stevensville
23-25, 25-16
Polson def. Anaconda
25-12, 25-13
Polson def. Corvallis
25-9, 25-22
Polson def. Dillon
25-21, 25-18
Polson def. Dillon
25-24, 25-22
