Maidens learn strengths, weaknesses at Tip-off tourney

WHITEFISH — The Ronan Maidens beat Stevensville but fell to Columbia Falls, Bigfork, Browning and Flathead at Saturday's Tip Off tournament in Whitefish, an event head coach Niki Graham called "eye opening."

"They struggled," Graham said. "We definitely have skills we need to work on."

According to Graham, the girls need to get some valuable court experience before they'll truly be a competitive team.

"We're competing against teams with varsity experience," she said. "That's something we don't have and we have to overcome that."

For the girls, it gave them an idea of where they are at as a team, explained junior Jessa Aipperspach.

"We struggled at first, but towards the end we started to play as a team," Aipperspach said.

"We got some good digs on Flathead, which was good because they are really tall."

Tip Off tourney scores don't count toward the season's record, explained Graham, as it was just an opportunity for teams to gauge their strengths and weaknesses.

Throughout the tourney, Graham said she saw a lot of potential in her team — it is just going to take a few wins before they gain confidence.

"We have to believe in ourselves," she said. "That will happen once we get our first (conference) win."

Brittany Bilile said that early on, they faltered somewhat but eventually cooperated better as a team.

Once they started rotating players, they learned who is skilled in what areas. For Bilile, she discovered that she was a descent hitter as well as a setter.

"When the season starts up, we'll start to impress the other teams," Bilile said.