Improved block, strong serving leads to Scotties sweep of Glendive.

When head coach Lori Dailey spoke last week, she thought if a few things went right the Glasgow volleyball team could at least compete with Glendive.

In their first meeting, Glendive wore down Glasgow, and when the Scotties passing game finally went, so did the Scotties. Glendive won that match 3-1.

But for as much as could have gone right, beating the Red Devils in straight sets may not have been in Dailey's realm of thought.

“I really didn't think it would go in three,” Dailey said. “I was quite confident we could win. They have some good athletes, I thought they would use them better and put up a little bit more of a fight.”

The Scotties' overpowered and out-finessed the Red Devils the whole match, getting many of their points by moving around Glendive's 6-foot-2 middle hitter Carly Selvig, eventually wearing the big blocker out.

“The game plan was to run her dead,” Dailey said. “By the end of the second and third games, she wasn't even putting a block up because she was exhausted. I'm so happy (my team) did everything exactly like we've been working on for a couple of weeks … The whole plan of setting where the big could couldn't get to and swinging for everything they had, that was working.”

While the passing maintained a key role in the Scotties' game plan from the previous match, Glasgow was able to block the ball extremely well in the game. Normally not a big number blocking team, the Scotties posted nine blocks in three sets, five from junior Shelby Fossum.

The Scotties also got a steady emotional performance in the sweep, something Dailey has said she has been looking for from the team for weeks. The steady play led the Scotties to make strong closes to each set, winning the last five points in the first set, the last seven points in the second set and winning the third set twice after a scoring error made Glasgow have to play to 25 two times.

“It's so nice to see them doing this at this point in the season,” Dailey said.

The Scotties only play once this week, in a road match against Harlem tonight, getting a little rest before playing two more road games to end the regular season at Plentywood and Wolf Point next week. Harlem hasn't been competitive this season, winning only two games this season. The Scotties easily beat the Lady Cats earlier this season in three sets, 25-12, 25-14, 25-9.