Polson wins one at home on senior night, loses tough one to Libby

LIBBY— The Polson Lady Pirates won a hard-fought match in their last home game of the season, downing Columbia Falls last week, before losing to Libby over the weekend to finish up the regular season.

Polson lost 16-25 in the first game, 12-25 in the second and 16-25 in the third. Libby clinched the No. 2 seed for divisionals and will defend their 11-1 record. With this loss Polson moves to 4-8 in league play, and they are tied for fourth, but due to the tiebreaker they ended up fifth, and will play Columbia Falls Thursday (today) to open divisional play.

Against Libby the Lady Pirates had four aces with Aislinn Nielsen bringing in two. There were 15 kills with Lexi Frederick getting four, and Loni Havlovick and Lindsey Rafter with three. There were 14 assists with Angela Schuman with 13 as the setter, and there were 31 digs with Jessica Buckless, Nicole Davey and Lindsey Rafter each getting six. There were five blocks with Lindsey Rafter getting two.

"Unfortunately we didn't play nearly as well as we did on Thursday," head coach Deanna McElwee said. "We struggled with desire and focus. It just wasn't our night."

Last week the Lady Pirates faced off against Columbia Falls in Polson and were able to come up with a five set match-up to win the game. In the first game the Lady Pirates won 25-18, lost 23-25 in the second, won 25-19 in the third, lost 23-25 in the fourth, but bounced back 16-14 for the win 16-14.

"We started out on fire playing hard and aggressive. During the second game Columbia Falls served well and we had a couple of times that we struggled serve receiving," McElwee said. "In game three we battled again to win. We just have to find a way to continue the momentum from game to game. We had the lead the entire fourth game, but let Columbia Falls back in it. We fought hard to win the match."

There were 49 kills with Lexi Frederick leading with 16 and Lindsey Rafter with 10. There were 36 assists with Angela Schuman getting 34 as setter. The team had 73 digs with Lindsey Rafter with 15, Angela Schuman with 13 and Nicole Davey with 11. There were six blocks with Lexi Frederick with four. The team had 14 aces with Lindsey Rafter taking five and Nicole Davey with four.

"It was a good win for us because we played so poorly at Columbia Falls earlier in the season to lose in three games," McElwee said. "Lexi Frederick did a great job again at the net. Lindsey Rafter had a solid all-around match. Kayla Schomer stepped in a couple of different spots during the match and served very well. Staci Benson had a good night on defense playing her first varsity match. Nicole Davey had a great night serving with 21 serves, four aces, and no errors."

The Lady Pirates will head to the Divisional Tournament which will be held in Whitefish starting today. They will open play against Columbia Falls at 10 a.m.