Mission has battle with Arlee, gets revenge victory over

district foe Deer Lodge

ST. IGNATIUS - Mission picked up two wins this week, pulling out gritty wins over Arlee and 6-B conference foe Deer Lodge.

While playing at Arlee on Tuesday, Oct. 4, the Lady Bulldogs defeated Lake County rival Arlee 3-1 by winning three straight games.

After losing the first game, 19-25, Mission won a close second game 25-23, took the 2-1 match lead with a 25-20 victory in the third game and finished things off with an extra-points fourth-game victory, 26-24.

"The game against Arlee had some longer volleys and we had a lot of attack attempts on Arlee," Mission head coach Kendal Anderson said. "I am hoping to finish with more kills right away instead of having to do so many volleys back and forth to get the point."

Junior Sara Nerby led the team with 12 kills while Ashley Courville was able to help neutralize the Scarlet attack with 17 digs.

Junior Loren Erickson had 22 assists in the match and senior Sarah Bowers had four aces.

"Sara has definitely stepped up to the challenge she's been faced with," Anderson said. "I recently moved her so she had to hit out of the middle rather than outside and she has been tearing it up at the net."

Mission fell to Thompson Falls on Thursday 3-1 despite 11 kills and four aces from Erickson. The Lady Bulldogs won the first game 25-19, but Thompson Falls took the second game in extra points 29-27.

The Lady Bluehawks won the next two games by scores of 25-20 and 25-14.

"Our girls looked like they got a little bit tired in the game against Thompson Falls," Anderson said. "Thompson has big middles and we weren't able to get around them with our hitting. We got blocked a lot and that made us lose our intensity and fight against them."

Courville again was solid on defense with 19 digs. Erickson also had 18 assists in the game. Mission avenged a loss to Deer Lodge earlier in the season with a 3-1 victory over the Lady Wardens Saturday night. The Lady Bulldogs came out in the first game with a 20-9 lead en route to the 25-17 victory.

"Deer Lodge seemed to have an off night and our girls showed up to play," Anderson said. "We finished our kills on the first attempt in a lot of cases and were able to tire their defense with our strong offense."

In the second game, Mission broke an 8-8 tie with a 14-5 run for the 25-18 victory and the 2-0 match lead. The third game was a battle as both teams stayed close and were locked at 20-20 before Deer Lodge was able to pull away for the 25-23 win.

In the fourth game, the Lady Wardens had a 15-13 lead before Mission took control and won 25-20 for the match. Nerby led the team with 12 kills while Stephanie Lewandowski had 23 digs and Erickson had 19 assists.