Polson Lady Pirates downs Ronan Maidens at home
RONAN MAIDEN volleyball player Madeline McCrea attacks the Polson Lady Pirates defense during the Polson-Ronan volleyball match Saturday afternoon at Linderman Elementary School. (Jason Blasco/Lake County Leader)
POLSON LADY PIRATES volleyball player Kaelyn Smith delivers a shot over to the Ronan Maidens defense during the Polson-Ronan match Saturday afternoon at Linderman Gym. (Jason Blasco/Lake County Leader)
Polson volleyball coach Patty Luetzen noticed her Lady Pirates are progressing as they defeated Ronan in the second match in three games 25-17, 26-24, 25-13.
In the Sept. 2 match, the Maidens defeated Polson in four 23-25,27-25, 25-20, 27-25. Luetzen has marked on her calendar the Oct. 19 and 20 Missoula Invitational as the time she wants to have her rotation solidified.
The Missoula Invitational is one week prior to the District Tournament that is held in Browning Oct. 27 and 28.
“We beat them in three and during our second set, we beat them 26-24,” Luetzen said. “That is an indicator to me of some maturity because our team had to come back from a deficit.”
Luetzen said she felt her Lady Pirates are learning to play within a system as the season progresses.
“We have worked really hard on our system issues,” Luetzen said. “The system is putting six people together to think as one individual and everybody has to continue to stay focused for our team to come together as a unit.”
One area Luetzen said she felt the team improved from the 2016 campaign to this year is they’ve stayed relatively healthy throughout the season.
“Last year, we struggled with a lot of medical issues and sometimes that kept us out of games,” Luetzen said. “You have to stay healthy to compete in districts, divisionals and state or it can be a long season. The volleyball season is long and you have to be able to sustain your play at a high level if you are going to continue to improve throughout the season.”
In the match against the Maidens, Kaelyn Smith led the team with 14 kills, Mikaela Ducharme had 10 kills, Olivia Perez had three kills and Paige Noyes had two kills. Laurel Bitterman and Smith led the Lady Pirates in aces with four, Kaylanna DesJarlais had three, Jaycee Frydenlund, Ducharme and Perez each finished the match with two.
Kyler Lundeen finished with 20 digs, Smith had 14, Bitterman had 13, Frydenlund had five, Perez had four and DesJarlais finished with two.
Ronan had a total of 12 kills on the match and were led by Louetta Conko-Camel who led the team with five and Madeline McCrea finished with three. Other Maidens that had kills includes Tiana Ulutoa, Madison Clairmont, Haylee Walchuk and Marissa Mock.
Ronan had only two aces including McCrea and Mock with aces. Setter Ulutoa had seven assists and Regan Clairmont had two assists. Ulutoa had 21 digs, Mock had 13 digs, R. Clairmont finished with 10 digs, Conko-Camel had 10 digs, Walchuk had five digs and Bailee DeLauranti finished the match with four digs.