The Lady Loggers handled the intensity of an enthusiastic homecoming crowd and defeated the Whitefish Lady Bulldogs on Thursday, winning a nail-biter fifth set, 17-15.

Head Coach Cindy Ostrem-Johnston was excited about the win.

“The second-best thing to winning your own homecoming is being a homecoming spoiler.”  

Libby came out swinging in the first set with Hannah England serving six of her 15 aces to open the game. Whitefish slowly crept back to within two, but Dayln Germany’s kill ended the set at 25-21. The Loggers dominated the second set 25-12. Staci Regh had four of the Logger’s 11 kills as Libby kept the Bulldogs off-balance with strong serving.  

Whitefish slowed the Logger momentum in the third set and took advantage of five Logger service errors to bounce back with a 25-19 win. After Libby rolled to an 18-14 lead in the fourth set, the Bulldogs stormed back to win 25-22 and force a deciding fifth set. “It seemed like we were going to take them in three, then that deadly momentum switch happened,” Ostrem-Johnston said.

In the final set, England again staked the Loggers to an early lead with two aces. Mahalah Wedel added two more to make the score 11-5. It looked like the Loggers might fall prey to late-game errors as Whitefish took a 15-14 lead when, according to Ostrem-Johnston, “two young, inexperienced players came through for us late in the critical fifth set. Baillie Rosling had an incredible dig, and India Croucher put two kills down,” sealing Libby’s first conference win.   

Coach Ostrem-Johnston said the win “was a big confidence booster to fight through adversity and pressure to win it all in the end,” Ostrem-Johnston said. The Loggers enter the second half of the season with a 1-3 conference record and host Columbia Falls on Thursday.

Kills – Whitefish 28 (Allie Schulz 10), Libby 42 (Regh 12);  Blocks – Whitefish 15 (Marlow Schultz 6), Libby 3 (Devon Gallagher 3);  Assists – Whitefish 29 (Bekah Weaver 24), Libby 39 (England 37);  Digs – Whitefish 35 (Maura Kalbfleisch 13), Libby 78 (Wedel 27);  Aces – Whitefish 4 (Weaver 3), Libby 26 (England 15)