Lady Scotties' Remarkable Season Comes to a Close

For the first time in nine years, the Lady Scotties were escorted out of town to the State Tournament at the Brick Breeden Field House on the Montana State University Bozeman Campus on Nov. 13 with parents and fans waving and honking in excitement at the hopes a State trophy will grace the hallways of Glasgow High School. Unfortunately for the Lady Scotties, tough pairings in the first two rounds of the tournament saw their dream of winning State vanish quickly.

The first match of the tournament paired the Huntley Project Red Devils with the Scotties, who, up to that point, were two-time defending state champs. The Red Devils would eventually take home the State title for the third time in a row. "To get paired off with Huntley Project first, who is now a three-time defending state champ and has over 100 consecutive wins in a row, for the first match of the tourney was a lot to ask of my team," Coach Somer Hoerster told the Courier. The Lady Scotties still came to play, even though they could not overcome the powerhouse of the Red Devils, losing 25-11, 25-12, 25-9. Taylor Pederson led the team with five kills, of the team's 16, with Laura Ross achieving four and Rachelle Glaser achieving three. Glaser dominated with assists, achieving the team's nine, while Keely Fossum and Pederson each achieved two blocks and Glaser achieved one for a total of three. Anika Peters led the team with nine digs, while Fossum, Ross and Glaser each achieved seven of the Scotties overall 44 total digs.

In addition to playing a defending state champ in the first round, the Lady Scotties also had to adjust to a new environment. "To play in a massive arena on special flooring with three other courts yelling/screaming and announcing going on all around them was a lot to take in. Then you add in the court that had special click together flooring that felt different and sounded different with really no defined back or sides, was a lot to have to adapt to in a very short time frame," explained Hoerster. "To deal with all of that and still came out and score a decent amount of points against Huntley first thing in the morning was a big moral victory for us."

Since the Lady Scotties game against the Red Devils was the first game of the tournament, the team had the whole day to reflect on the morning's play and had the opportunity to scout out future opponents until their next match up on Nov. 15 against Florence-Carlton. Fans following the tournament believed the Scotties had a good chance to redeem themselves as Shelby had beat Florence-Carlton in match two of the State tournament, and the Lady Scotties had beat Shelby just a week before in order to play in the championship round at Divisionals. However, the Florence-Carlton Falcons had other ideas. In three games, the Falcons beat the Scotties 25-8, 25-22, 25-21, ending the Scotties chance at the State title. During the match, the Scotties achieved four aces, with Tyann Graham leading the team with two, followed by Fossum and Ross with one each. Ross achieved six kills and Pederson achieved five of the team's 24 kills. Glaser again dominated with assists with 18, of the team's 20. Fossum achieved the team's only block as well as 15 digs, of the team's 44, followed by Glaser's nine and Abrianna Nielson's eight.

"We started our match with them a little slow and struggled a bit. However, we immediately rallied in game two and one point, even were up on them 20-15. Florence rallied and came back to win that game, but we forced them to use both timeouts and I know they felt a lot of pressure from us. We stayed positive and battled back and forth with them during game three and made a big comeback but just ran out of time," explained Hoerster. "I couldn't have asked for my kids to do any more than they did. They fought and competed and handled themselves extremely well for being rookies to the biggest tourney in their lives."

Even though the Scotties season ended without the state title, they still accomplished an amazing season. They ended with a record of 18 wins and five losses overall. They were crowned District 2B Champions and dug themselves through the bracket to win second at Divisionals. Coach Hoerster couldn't be more proud of how the season transpired and all the accomplishments that were reached.

"I have so many things to be proud of with this team. First and foremost, they are just an all-around nice group of kids that got along extremely well," reflected Horester. "That part alone, made it a joy to coach them. Then you add in their willingness to compete and learn. They put the time in over the summer and came this season ready to work hard and demand a lot from themselves and each other. Not to mention that we had some firsts along the way with finishing in the Gold bracket in two tournaments, go undefeated in district play matches, literally only dropping one game to any district opponent and only one match to any team in regular season play. All of those things are a big deal by themselves and when taken as a whole, this group should be commended for what they accomplished out on the court."

In addition to the season's accomplishments,Fossum, Glaser, and Pederson were selected to participate in the first team of the District 2B All-Conference Team while Peters and Ross were selected to be a part of the second team. Fossum and Glaser were also selected for All-State. "Honestly this whole season has been one for the scrapbooks for me. I knew from the beginning with this group that I needed to enjoy this for as long as possible because teams this special don't come around that often and I needed to embrace it while I could and enjoy the ride," said Hoerster.