After watching all but one of her granddaughter’s volleyball games this season, Carolyn Hagadorn felt confident enough to make a reservation at a Bozeman hotel almost two weeks before the state tournament.
The Polson girls made sure Hagadorn won’t need to cancel it.
For the fourth year in a row, the Polson Lady Pirates are playing at the Class A state tournament. The well-rounded squad capped another impressive regular season with a victory over Whitefish for the second straight year in the Northwestern A divisional championship on Nov. 5. Both teams advance to Bozeman for the eight-team state tournament, which begins on Nov. 10.
After coming home empty handed the last three years, the Pirates are still pursuing their first state title in school history. They open up tourney action against Belgrade at 10 a.m. Whitefish takes on defending state champ Fergus (Lewistown) at 4 p.m.
The divisional title was another achievement for a Polson program that has built a winning tradition from the ground up over the last four years.
When head coach Jan Toth took over in 2007 after successful stints in Cut Bank and Livingston, the Lady Pirates were mired in a string of losing seasons that dated back to the 1990s. The team finished 1-17 in 2007, and Toth made a hopeful vow to the low-spirited girls.
“I just promised them that they would be winners if they stayed with me,” Toth said. “I walked in and had high expectations. I said it’s going to be a tough go because I know what it takes to build a program. But I said if you stay with me we will be there.”
The next season the girls went 12-6 and made it to the state tournament for the first time since 1994. Since then, the Lady Pirates have gone 45-5 in the regular season.
“They know my style of volleyball. I demand a lot out of them and they have absorbed that and they want more and more, too,” Toth said.
Despite having a newfound winning tradition in place, this year’s success was anything but guaranteed. Two veteran all-state players graduated last year; size was not exactly a strength; and on paper there was not a big hitter to rely on.
“Nobody had a lot of expectations for this team,” Toth said.
An injury in the summer even seemed to foreshadow a stormy season ahead. Senior starter Riley Kenney blew out her shoulder playing softball and was scheduled to spend eight months recovering after surgery.
How bad does this Polson team want to win? Just ask Kenney. She worked hard recovering and by the time volleyball practices had started, she was at the gym.
“I asked her, ‘Are you going to be my manager?’” Toth said. “She looked at me and said, ‘No, I’m playing.’”
Kenney and the Lady Pirates powered through the regular season and finished 14-2 overall, 9-1 in conference, and hoisted only the second divisional title in school history.
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Polson’s Riely Kenney, right, and Heidi Rausch get their hands up to defend a ball spiked by Columbia Falls during the Lady Pirates’ win to advance in the divisional tournament. |
“It’s amazing to be here,” Kenney said after the championship game. “It was a lot of hard work but it was worth every minute of it.”
The secret to their success could be seen in that title game.
While most teams constantly try to feed the ball to a standout hitter on the outside or around the net, Polson patiently finds whoever wants it. It makes it hard to defend when you don’t know where it’s coming from. That was apparent in Whitefish as Polson picked apart the Lady Bulldogs, winning 3-1.
“We don’t have one certain player who has to get the ball,” Kenney said. “All the girls on the court are great. We’re all leaders.”
It helps, too, that most of these girls are used to competing alongside one another throughout the school year. Several players, like Kenney, were members on last year’s state champion softball team or the state champion track team the year before.
But the volleyball state title has been elusive. The Lady Pirates have not finished better than fourth over the last few years.
Toth is confident that will change this time around. After losing her voice during the divisional championship in Whitefish, Toth spoke passionately about this year’s group and what they’ve accomplished and overcome. Tradition is in place, but this team is still hungry for more, she said.
“We have a competitive nature that is second to none,” she said. “I knew looking at this team when the season started, because they’re made up of such great characters and such hard workers and such amazing athletes, I knew that they were going to do big things.”
Cheering from the stands with her husband Bill and the rest of the Polson fans who made the trip, Hagadorn expressed the same optimism for this year’s team. She has been watching volleyball for many years now, with a family full of daughters and now granddaughters.
“They all balance out with their different skills,” Hagadorn, whose granddaughter is senior Kenzie Clay, said of the Lady Pirates. “They have all the elements.”
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Polson’s head volleyball coach Jan Toth, left, directs her players from the sidelines during the Lady Pirates’ win over Columbia Falls to advance in the divisional tournament in Whitefish. |
For the second year in a row, both Flathead and Glacier are back at the Class AA state volleyball tournament. Beginning Nov. 10 in Bozeman, Flathead will play last year’s runner-up, fifth-ranked Billings West (22-8), at noon. Glacier will play top-ranked Billings Senior (28-2) at 2 p.m.
Flathead (18-8) has made it to state six seasons in a row and enters this year’s tournament ranked third in the final power poll of the season. The Bravettes are hoping to bring back their first top-three trophy since taking third in 2007. The program’s lone state title came in 2001.
Glacier (15-10) returns to state a year after earning third place, the best finish in the program’s history.