Arlee plays strong in busy week of matches and Spike It

Tournament

ARLEE - The Arlee Scarlets had a busy week of volleyball, but found plenty of successes in splitting two matches and finishing third while hosting the Spike It Tournament over the weekend.

On Tuesday, Oct. 4, the Scarlets welcomed the Mission Lady Bulldogs down south. Despite filling the stat sheet across the board, Arlee dropped a very close 19-25, 25-23, 25-20, 26-24 match to the Lady Bulldogs.

"There were a few things I saw that we needed to work on," head coach Brian Big Sam said. "We worked on them in practice and the tournament. Our defense was better as the week went on."

Cortney Dix led a spirited attack against Mission with a team-leading five aces and 15 assists, while tying Becca Nelson and Mahalia Hendren for the team lead with 10 kills apiece. Whitney Malatare recorded 19 of the Scarlets' 87 digs in the loss.

Two days later, Arlee would get the bitter taste of defeat out of their mouths when they went to Lincoln and shellacked the host Lady Lynx in straight sets, 25-17, 25-12, 25-15.

The Scarlets used a relentless defensive game to stymie Lincoln, dominating the Lady Lynx in every facet of the game.

"We went in thinking, ‘Don't let it intimidate you, go up and block it,'" Big Sam said.

The defense did just that. Despite only eight blocks, Arlee stood in on Lincoln's kill attempts, out-digging the hosts 52-11 and out-killing them 37-8.

Bailey Rice notched 15 of those digs, while Hendren added nine kills and four blocks. Dix set up 14 kills and Nelson's seven aces helped the Scarlets dominate in that stat 16-1.

The momentum carried into the Arlee Spike It Tournament on Saturday. Despite not receiving a bye after round-robin play, the Scarlets still managed a third-place finish. Following preliminary matchups against Philipsburg, Lincoln and Drummond, the Scarlets bounced Alberton (21-17, 21-9) and Noxon (21-12, 21-16) from the tournament before being eliminated in the semifinals in a rematch with Drummond.

Many girls had impressive performances for Arlee, but Malatare seemed to be all over the court.

"She's starting to come back," Big Sam said. "I loved the way she played against Noxon. It was fun to see her coming back to the way she played last year."

The Scarlets will welcome two tournament foes to the Jocko Valley this weekend. On Friday, Oct. 14, Arlee faces off again versus Noxon. The next night, Hot Springs travels to Arlee to face the Scarlets.

Game time is set for 5:30 p.m. on Friday and 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.