Lady Pirates fight for two wins

STEVENSVILLE — It wasn’t easy, but the Polson Lady Pirates (3-0, overall, 2-0 conf.) gutted out a road win 25-13, 25-20, 21-25, 28-26 over Stevensville on Tuesday night, 3-1, after losing the third game and giving some of the momentum away to the Yellowjackets.

“We played so tough our first two games and kind of let our guard down,” Polson head coach Jan Toth said.

Senior Sallie Sams had 17 kills and five blocks in the match, but after sophomore Shay Duford sent the ball over the net, her sister  senior setter Kayla Duford stuffed a kill attempt at the net for the match point in the fourth set and the game.

“I was really proud of my girls,” Toth said. “They did a great job of fighting back.”

Toth said she went with three different rotations during the match.

Polson then won their conference matchup against Libby on Thursday, 3-1, with their lone blemish being the third game in the 25-16, 25-18, 23-25, 25-18 victory.

“There were a lot of great things that happened,” Toth said. “Our defense and serving was good.”

Libby did have some success in that third game with eight aces, but overall Polson had a tremendous defensive match with 76 digs. The Lady Pirates were also stellar behind the line with a 96 percent serving percentage from the field.

“Some of our hitters had an off night but they stayed with the match,” Toth said.

Somebody who didn’t have a off night was senior Breanne Kelley, who led the team by putting in an all-around performance with 16 kills and 21 digs.

Since the team had to play on the road both on Tuesday and Thursday, Toth said her girls fought through fatigue of traveling for the victory.

“I was a little nervous for Libby. [The Lady Pirates] were tired,” Toth said. “It’s not easy to win in Libby. Libby has a great team and a crowd that supports their volleyball.”

Polson will play Ronan at 3 p.m. on Saturday and then host Frenchtown at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday.