Polson Volleyball: Bringing in the hard hitters

When Lady Pirates head coach Jan Toth sees that her team is

putting in a lackluster practice, she does something about it.

POLSON - When Lady Pirates head coach Jan Toth sees that her team is putting in a lackluster practice, she does something about it.

"I send them home and not with a happy face," Toth said. "It's like beating a dead horse when something isn't working."

However, Polson (9-0 overall) hasn't had very many of those practices as evident by their undefeated record and first place position in the Northwestern A Conference.

"It's a rarity," Toth said. "These kids are focused."

The team has a motto of getting into practice and accomplishing what they need to get down in a brutal hour and a half.

"Practices are organized and tough," Toth said.

The Lady Pirates hard work paid off against some of the best AA teams in the state last weekend in the Missoula Invitational tournament. After a rough first day, they bounced back and advanced to the championship game of the consolation bracket where they fell to Missoula Hellgate.

Toth said that the team had to overcome the jitters of playing teams that were a class up. They lost their first game of the tournament on Friday to Glacier and ended up ranked seventh out of eighth in pool play.

"We came out as flat as can be," Toth said. "I think the girls were nervous against Glacier."

However, the Lady Pirates saw something, they saw that they were just as good as the AA teams, Toth said, and their conference.

"I think we got better at the end," Toth said. "We collectively got better and better."

On Saturday, Polson came out with fire and a much quicker offense. They defeated Anaconda 25-17, 25-18 in the first round and then downed Big Sky 25-15, 26-24.

"Against Big Sky, that was the best volleyball we played all year," Toth said. "They couldn't stop us at all."

The Lady Pirates' hitters wowed a lot of people at the tournament, as seniors Sallie Sams and Breanne Kelley delivered the hardest hits that Toth had seen all year.

"I really believe that we have the best of the best hitters out there," she said. "I didn't see any others hit as hard as Breanne, Sallie and [junior Riley Kenney]."

Polson also downed Libby earlier in the week to stay undefeated in Northwestern A Conference play. The 3-0 match victory saw 25-14, 25-20 and 25-19 wins for the Lady Pirates.

They employed their hard hitting to keep the Lady Loggers out of the woods. Sams had 13 kills with a .647 hitting percentage, along with 11 kills from Kelley and nine from Kenney.

"They had a stellar night," Toth said. "[Senior Kayla Duford] put the ball up and we put it down."

Sams had five blocks in the game and Kenney backed up the Lady Pirates with eight digs.

"We are definitely focused on power hitting," Toth said. "If we're going to tip, it's going to be a strategic hit. We work a lot of the time on putting it down."