Vals emerge victorious at district tournament

The Valkyries may have gone into last week's District 7B Volleyball Tournament in Troy as regular season co-champions with Eureka, but they emerged from the tournament on top and all alone.

It wasn't an easy climb for Bigfork, though, who had to face the Eureka Lady Lions three times during the tournament. Eureka and Bigfork both had their only loses of the regular season to each other. Bigfork was the No. 1 seed going into the tournament, though, because they beat the Lions in three games and it took Eureka five to beat the Vals. That rivalry was well played out during the tournament.

Having received a bye in the first round, Bigfork faced St. Ignatius in the second round and beat them in four games. St. Ignatius won the first game 26-24, but the Vals took the next three, 25-19, 25-16 and 25-16.

"This was our first game of the tourney and we came out a little sluggish, but we recovered and got the win," McDaniel said.

Emily Hardman had 19 kills, eight digs, four aces and three blocks. Claire Wilken had 25 assists, four digs and four aces. Kelly Deaton had 18 digs and three aces. Mallery Knoll contributed 15 digs, 11 kills and three aces. Taylor Peck added 17 assists.

"All the girls contributed to the win," McDaniel said. "There were more hits, digs and aces spread out over numerous kids. We had 19 aces in this game which was nice to see because we have been struggling with consistency in the serving department. We even had girls from the front line get stats in the assist category."

With the win, Bigfork moved on to play the winner of the Thompson Falls vs. Eureka game, which was Eureka.

"Bigfork came out fired up for this match and it showed the minute they hit the floor," McDaniel said. "They even pumped up the adrenaline in the warm up."

The Vals won the first two matches 25-18 and 25-17, respectively, but then let their guard down. Bigfork allowed the Lions to win the third game 25-18, but pulled off the win with a 25-22 victory in game four.

"We won sets one and two without much problem and relaxed a little bit too much in the third and let Eureka gain back the momentum that allowed them to take set three," McDaniel said. "We refocused and came back to win set four for the match win."

Wilken led the Vals with 31 assists and 10 digs. Hardman contributed 26 kills, nine digs and three aces. Deaton added 18 digs. Knoll had 13 kills and 13 digs. Peck had 24 assists. Melissa VanDerveer led the Vals in aces with eight of the team's 15 aces.

The early afternoon victory took Bigfork into the championship game, but the girls had to wait all day to see who their opponent would be. After making their way through the loser's bracket and beating St. Ignatius, Eureka found themselves across the net from the Vals once again. However, with Bigfork undefeated in the tournament, it would take two losses for them not to be crowned the champions.

"The sitting around waiting to play for the better part of the day did not do much for us," McDaniel said. "Eureka had been playing on and off through out the day and came out ready to play."

Eureka beat the Vals in three games; 25-14, 25-22 and 26-24.

"Emily had been fighting a knot in the muscle in her back all day so she was definitely not herself," McDaniel said. "Deaton had an inner struggle going on that was messing with her focus. We couldn't get into a rhythm and it started to mess with our heads."

Wilken and Peck led the Vals with 22 and 19 assists, respectively. Hardman contributed just five kills and six digs and Deaton also only had six digs. Knoll had 12 digs and 10 kills.

A second championship match was played immediately following the first.

"We rolled right out of the previous game and into this one and picked up right where we left off," McDaniel said.

Unfortunately for the Vals, the place they had left off was not a good one and they lost the first game 25-12.

"I called another time out and gathered the girls in a circle, had them hold each others' hands, take a minute to breathe and to evaluate the situation," McDaniel said. "They had come to the conclusion that we needed to start having fun again. In all the chaos, they had abandoned the very thing that got us this far to begin with and that was simply having fun, enjoying the moment and each other. I told them that I knew they were tired, but if they kept fighting it would be worth it in the end. After that, it was like the sky opened, the clouds parted and they came roaring back."

Bigfork won the second game 25-23, fell 25-17 in the third and went on to win the final two games 26-24 and 15-13, respectively.

In the final match, Wilken had 41 assists, six digs and four kills. Peck added 26 assists. Hardman came back strong with 22 kills, six digs and three aces. Deaton contributed 11 digs. Knoll had 15 each of kills and digs. VanDerveer helped out with eight kills and three digs.

"Their trophy will be displayed in the case forever, just as the memory of that night will be forever etched in their hearts and minds," McDaniel said. "They did it the hard way, but it made it that much sweeter when it happened."

The Western B Divisional Volleyball Tournament begins today, Nov. 5, in Superior. The Vals first match is at 10 a.m. against Valley Christian School from Missoula. The top two teams from the tournament will advance to the state tournament Nov. 12 to 14 in Bozeman.

A total of four teams from District 7B will be at the tournament. Eureka is the No. 2 seed, St. Ignatius took the third spot and Thompson Falls earned the fourth. They will meet the four teams from District 6B who advanced through their tournament. Loyola is the District 6B Champion, followed by Deer Lodge, Florence and Valley Christian, respectively.

Bigfork played all of the 6B teams that will be at divisionals except for Valley Christian during the regular season. The Vals lost to Loyola, but beat both Dear Lodge and Florence.