Bravettes wake up, down Loggers

The Flathead Bravettes must have forgotten to set their alarms for game time on Thursday night.

They slept through the entire first game of a nonconference volleyball clash and were surprised 25-16 by the Northwestern A Libby Loggers.

The Loggers pretty much served Flathead off the court in the first game.

But the Bravettes managed to stir themselves and came away with a 16-25, 25-14, 29-27, 25-16 victory.

"That was kind of a pleasant surprise to come out and take that first game like that," said Libby coach Cindy Ostrem-Johnston.

"We were on a roll. Things were going well for us," she said.

"First and third game. We made a great comeback in the third game. It was fun to see the kids battle there at the end and push it to 27-29. I was disappointed in our second and fourth games. I felt we let a couple mistakes roll into several. We let it snowball and got down," she said.

"I think we still haven't figured out how to take control of ourselves in a consistent manner," said Flathead coach Leon Wilcox.

"Our intensity is manageable and we're not managing it when we need to. We're still up and down," he said.

"We just went out so lackluster in Game 1. We missed five serves. We weren't able to establish any momentum at all. Missing that many serves, it's almost impossible to capture any momentum.

"Our passing was off all night. Libby served really well. They mixed it up, topspin and floaters. We never could get in a groove. You can take a team with a better offense out of it by keeping their passing off and that's what they did to us," the coach said.

Meanwhile, Libby middle hitters Jackie Mee and Alex Kulbeck were doing pretty much whatever they wanted - Mee had five kills in the first game and Kulbeck had two kills and two blocks. The Bravettes had just two blocks in the first game, both by freshman Kwyn Johnson.

"Their middles just went off on us in the first two games ... and we did nothing to stop them. They hit around our block and they were extremely effective against our defense," he added.

"It just comes down to mental toughness. Jackie (Mee) is a seasoned, experienced, talented player. It took us awhile to really be mentally tough enough to believe we could effectiviely slow her own. Once they did, it kind of built on itself," he said.

According to Wilcox, the Flathead turnaround started with freshman Cassie Krueger.

"Her job was to block the middle. All of a sudden, we started putting up a bigger wall and we threw their hitters off rhythm," Wilcox said.

The Bravettes slowly took control in the second game. The score was tied at 8-all when Mee missed a serve wide.

Flathead's sophomore setter Alison Lunde served the next four points to build a 13-8 cushion for the Bravettes. Suddenly, the Bravette offense switched into high gear as they had eight kills from three different hitters. Libby, on the other hand, managed just one kill the rest of the way.

"It's the inconsistency right now. We have to develop consistency and mental toughness," Wilcox said.

The story of the third game was the Libby comeback. Down 18-11, the Loggers fought back to tie the game at 21-all. They even had game point at 25-24.

"That was a fun game. It was quite a battle, both teams were going at it. (Winning) it gave us a little bit of go and took the wind out of their sails. We got ahold of the momentum and didn't let it go," Wilcox said.

"This was a good experience for us tonight," Ostrem-Johnston said.

"Flathead is a good strong team. They definitely put up a huge block against us. We didn't handle that very well. We didn't adjust to it. We hit into their block several times. You've got to learn to adjust to it and that's tough to simulate in practice, so it's great to get that experience. Hopefully, we can learn from it," she added.

"Kudos to Flathead. They have a strong program. They took it to us hard with the offense. They ran some offenses we usually don't see," she said.

"It's great that they put us on their schedule. We gave them some decent competition tonight. We just need to shake off our mistakes faster," she said.

Mee led the Loggers with 21 kills. Kulbeck added five blocks and Alysha Martin had 14 digs.

Ostrem-Johnston also complimented the serving effort of Katie Emery and the serve receive of Logan Best.

Hannah Sackett had 17 kills and seven aces for Flathead. Danika Johnson added 14 kills and five blocks and Mary Allen had 19 digs.

Kills: Libby 44 (Jackie Mee 21), Flathead 46 (Hannah Sackett 17, Danika Johnson 14); Assists: Libby 35 (Evi Cernick 34), Flathead 39 (Alison Lunde 33); Blocks: Libby 5 (Alex Kulbeck 3), Flathead 13 (Kwyn Johnson 7, D. Johnson 5); Digs: Libby 61 (Alysha Martin 14), Flathead 67 (Mary Allen 19, Jaimee Zorn 12); Aces: Libby 7 (Katie Emery 3), Flathead 9 (Sackett 7).