Scotties drop only two matches at State Tournament

BOZEMAN – The ending to the 2009 Glasgow volleyball season wasn't quite as exciting as the team's body of work. The team lost its only two matches in the tournament, 3-0 to Huntley Project and 3-2 to Deer Lodge.

The Scotties' first match came after a set of upsets early in the tournament. The third match at State, Glasgow was trying to join Red Lodge and Baker in beating top-seeded teams. Red Lodge knocked off Northern champ Choteau 3-1 and Baker beat Western champ Loyola Sacred Heart 3-2, leaving a sheen of hope for the Scotties as they took on Southern champion Huntley Project.

The first set was close against the Red Devils. The Scotties went down two points early, but stayed with Huntley despite some mistakes. It wasn't until late in the set that the Devils were able to separate themselves from Glasgow winning the set 25-19.

The second set was nearly as competitive with the Scotties leading early. The only issue was they couldn't sustain any long runs against the Devils, winning two or three points in a row, but never being able to gain a significant lead. Then the snags that hurt the Scotties in the first set hit again, as the passing broke down in the back row and the lead slipped towards Huntley. Huntley ended up winning the set 25-14, leaving the Scotties to hope for a monumental comeback like they had in divisionals against Fairfield.

The set started off well enough for the Scotties, only trailing 7-5, when disaster hit and the game plan broke down entirely. Huntley ripped off 11 straight points to bury the Scotties, and won the set 25-6, taking the match 3-0.

The mood after the match was understandably somber, but the Scotties had a few more chances at redemption, with a match against Deer Lodge on Friday. The Wardens were beat 3-0 by Wolf Point in the opening round and were also looking to rally from the losers bracket.

In the match against Wolf Point, the Wardens showed to be one of the most flamboyant teams in the tournament, spiking and dying their coaches hair bright blue prior to the match and prominently displaying a ceramic rooster on their sidelines. For the match against Glasgow, they toned down some of the shenanigans and seemed more focused on the match.

The lack of distractions worked for Deer Lodge in the first set against Glasgow. The Scotties looked as bad in the first set Friday as they had in the last set against Huntley. Nothing was going right for the girls as they dropped the first set 25-12 and looked overmatched in the big setting in Bozeman.
But the team that had played their way into State showed up for the final four sets.

The Scotties battled hard and took two of the next three sets to force a fifth set. Glasgow took the second and fourth sets 25-21 and 25-16 while dropping the third 25-22.

In the final set, some of the closeout bugaboos that have challenged the team since tournament play began struck again. Up 10-7, the Scotties lost eight of the final nine points in the match, ending their season as Deer Lodge took the set 15-11 and the match 3-2.

Luck was just as bad for the rest of the Northern Division. Wolf Point was the only team of the three qualifiers to win their first round match, but after losing in the second round to Huntley, the Wolves matched up with Choteau in the losers bracket.

Choteau won the match 3-0, as they had in the divisional final, and ended up advancing to the third place game against Red Lodge. The Bulldogs ran out of steam and were unable to topple the Redskins after taking the first set, losing the match 3-1 (14-25, 25-14, 25-14, 25-12) and claiming third place.
Huntley Project didn't drop a set in the tournament on their way to claiming the Class B Championship.