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Lady Pirates season ends at state tourney
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BOZEMAN — The Lady Pirate volleyball season came to an end Friday as Polson came up short against Billings Central at the state tournament.
Polson went 1-2 in the double-elimination tournament on the campus of Montana State University, falling to Laurel in their tournament opener Thursday afternoon before bouncing back with a win over Stevensville at noon Friday.
The Lady Pirates played tough in all three matches, but just could not get the ball down against the Lady Rams in their final match, falling in three games, 25-15, 25-20, 26-24.
“We found ourselves on the defensive from the get-go and defense has been our weakness,” Polson coach Jan Toth said. “We could not put up a block. When we did start putting up a block and figured out our hitting, then we were already playing catch-up. We were always playing catch-up.”
Breanne Kelley had a great hitting day against the Rams, leading Polson with 23 kills while Kayla Duford added 25 assists and libero Kendyall Rochin had 26 digs. It just was not enough for the Lady Pirates, as Billings Central pounded down 50 kills to get the victory.
“We thought that we matched up very well against Billings Central, but we let them control the pace of the game. I thought that we were just as good as Billings Central. We had the same caliber of players. We just couldn’t get it done when we needed to,” Toth said.
Polson opened the tournament with a scary moment against Laurel Thursday with Riley Kenney once again separating her shoulder diving for a ball on the team’s first play.
“That stunned us. She had worked hard all week. We had some great plays that involved her and when she went down, it changed what we wanted to do,” Toth said.
Heidi Rausch entered the game to replace Kenney, and played well, but Kenney was able to return to the court later.
“Heidi went in and did a great job, it just really changed up our rotation and we had a very hard time adjusting to that,” Toth said. “Riley wasn’t going to just sit on that bench. She came to play and she was going to play through anything. I think she would have asked to go in even if her arm were hanging by a thread.”
Polson never seemed to recover from the shock as Laurel went on to win in four games, 25-17, 22-25, 25-16, 25-23.
Polson looked out of sorts throughout the contest against Laurel as they struggled to get anything going against the Locomotives.
“We had five service errors in that first game. That really takes the wind out of your sails when you are trying to get something going. That hurt us,” Toth said. “I just felt like we never really got anything going. It wasn’t from a lack of trying. We were probably trying too hard, in my mind. We were playing not to lose instead of playing to win.”
The Pirates used their usual power attack, but the Locomotive defense shined in the contest, finishing with 171 digs as three Laurel players finished with more than 30 digs. Ashley Steinmetz finished with 41 digs to lead the match while Sam Sissell added 35 and Jayde Lefevre had 35.
“Laurel just didn’t make a lot of mistakes, and we were not used to that,” Toth said. “We would pound the ball and they would just bring it right back to us. They didn’t have any big hitters. They just had consistency.”
Laurel continually used a tip play over the Polson defenders to frustrate the Lady Pirates throughout the contest, leading to several Locomotive points. Polson was able to fight back with 10 aces, including three each from Ashley Johnson and Shay Duford, but the Lady Pirates could not battle their way back to get the win.
Polson picked up its only win of the tournament in their first match Friday as they took down Stevensville in four games, 20-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-17.
The Lady Pirates were on fire from the service line against the Yellowjackets as Polson recorded 20 aces in the victory. Shay Duford picked up eight of Polson’s 20 aces in the win while Kelley added six more.
Kelley also led Polson in kills once again, finishing with 17 and also added a pair of blocks.
The Lady Pirate defense also came up big in the win, finishing with 102 digs, led by Rochin with 26.
While Polson looked strong in the final three games of the match, the Lady Pirates did get off to a shaky start as they fell in the opening game and trailed midway through the second. Polson seemed to turn things around after a timeout by Toth in that second game.
“In the second match, we had to do some soul searching to determine what we were doing. They came at us strong and I didn’t get upset until that second game. Then, I flew off the handle,” Toth said. “I knew we had to change something. We had to stop playing someone else’s game and get back to what we have been doing all year. We needed to go back to what we do best, our power game. We started tipping and we were just not the same team I am used to.”
