Ronan goes two-and-out; had higher hopes

Zach Urness / Leader Staff

So much for home court advantage.

The season came to a premature end for the Maidens as they went 0-2 at the Northwest A divisionals last weekend at the Ronan Event Center. As the number five seed in the tournament Ronan faced off against Columbia Falls in the first round, a team they went 1-1 against during the regular season and beat at home.

But it wasn't to be this time, as the Maidens were unable to overcome the loss of hitter Carli Starkel and fell 3-1. In their second game they came up short to Bigfork, 3-0, to end the season at 5-12 overall.

"It was a disappointing tournament for us as a team," said head coach Stacey Ropp. "We had higher hopes than how things ended up for us. We had our best hitting nights as far as kill percentage goes in our last two games. The girls played hard and gave it everything they could and we still fell a bit short. But I feel like it was a good season for us and these kids returning next year have a lot to look forward to."

Ropp noted that he saw some good things from his team, but also saw some things that hurt them and made the difference.

"I was really pleased to see the girls become more consistent with their hitting and eliminating a lot of our mistakes that we had been making throughout the season while hitting," said Ropp. "But then we seemed to have gone backwards with our digging and passing which seemed to be the difference in both matches. We were in both matches and had a chance to pull it out but a few mistakes here and there made the difference and we ended before we had hoped to."

Ronan will lose top players Kallia Orr, Allison Crenshaw and Ishan Wylie to graduation.

Columbia Falls 3, Ronan 1

The Maidens had trouble overcoming some hitting errors and ended up losing by a final score of 20-25, 25-22, 19-25, 14-25.

The game was tied at 10-10 in the first game but Ronan had trouble holding onto the ball on side-outs, largely because of service errors, and they fell into a 16-13 hole that they were unable to recover from.

In the second game, the only one they would win, the Maidens went on a 9-2 run to take 21-17 lead and eventually take the game and tie up the contest at one game each. But the Maidens couldn't keep the train rolling and put themselves in a hole at the start of both the third and fourth games—making a few comeback attempts—but ultimatlying losing both.

Ronan had four aces that were split between Kaylee Larson and Allison Crenshaw. Larson also led the team with 16 kills. Setter Ashley Cheff had 31 of 35 assists and Ishan Wylie led the team with five blocks at the net.

Bigfork 3, Ronan 0

Things did not get any easier for Ronan in the loser-out game Saturday, as they took on the number-three seeded Bigfork Vals. The Maidens kept the game very close, losing the first two games by a total of six points, but they just couldn't put together a big enough rally to keep the pressure on the Vals. Their season ended on a 25-18 game three loss.

Outgoing senior Ishan Wylie, who led the team for most of the season, ended her career with eight of Ronan's 38 digs. Kaylee Larson, who will return next year, had seven of the Maiden's 24 kills.