WEB EXCLUSIVE: Volleyball wins twice, clinches berth to State

They took the long way to get there, but the Glasgow Scotties volleyball team has clinched a spot in the state tournament for the first time in five years.

The girls started the night off smooth, with a three-set win over Shelby, but got tight in the second game of the night and nearly lost to Fairfield before coming back from two sets down to take their place in the semifinal with Choteau.

The match against Shelby went as planned. The top-ranked Scotties controlled play for the entire match after struggling early in the first set to separate themselves on the score sheet.

Once the team got control of its errors, the match went quickly with Glasgow winning 25-19, 25-12, 25-14.

Things got interesting in the second game of the night. Playing after a long break for dinner, the Scotties faced off with Fairfield in the last match of the night at Malta High School. Fairfield beat Malta 3-0 earlier in the night to set up its game with the Scotties.

Glasgow started the first set like it had against Shelby. The game was close until the the late teens when the Scotties started to separate themselves from the Eagles.

But, the closeout jitters that struck the team in Wolf Point came back. Leading 24-20, the Scotties squandered the lead, letting Fairfield score five straight points, and were unable to recover the momentum in the set, losing 27-25.

The second set was an even worse showing for Glasgow. Still playing tight and trying to regain the momentum they lost in the first set, the Scotties got down early in the second set. Making costly errors and passing poorly, the Scotties lost the set 25-17.

“Sometimes when your team is struggling like we did in the second game, you sometimes just want (the set) to be done,” head coach Lori Dailey said. “You want to get out of the funk and go over to the other side and start fresh. Sometimes that works and sometimes that doesn't. Tonight it worked.”

The team met before the beginning of the third set and told each other to just make the little plays and let everything fall in place, Dailey said.

And fall in place it did.

The Scotties played inspired in the third set, crushing Fairfield 25-13. The set brought life back to a team that was playing crushed earlier in the match.

“Once we got that third game under us I think were able to breathe a bit,” Dailey said.

The fourth set was much closer, but the Scotties were able to take advantage after nearly losing their composure and letting a late lead slip again in the match. After Glasgow was leading 23-20, the Eagles came back again to tie the set, bring back memories of the first set for many in the crowd. Yet this time the Scotties found a way to get two more points without letting Fairfield steal another set from underneath their feet.

In the fifth set, the Scotties had all of the momentum and capitalized on the emotional swing. As both teams traded points back and forth, Glasgow was able to eke out a two point lead and carry that to the victory winning the final set 15-13 and taking the match 3-2.

The Scotties advanced and guarantee themselves at least third place with the win. The top three teams from the Northern Division are moving on to play in next weekend's state tournament in Bozeman. Glasgow will play Choteau at 6 p.m. on Friday.

The Bulldogs have looked like the class of the division through the early games. After destroying Plentywood 3-0 in the first match of the tournament, Choteau easily dismantled Wolf Point in the quarters, beating the Wolves 3-0.

The Scotties and Bulldogs have met twice before this season, splitting their matches at the Choteau Invitational in September.