The defending state Class A volleyball champion, Corvallis, will have a chance to defend their title. They will make the long trip to Sidney for the state tournament which begins on Thursday. The team will leave on Tuesday, travel to Billings where they will practice and spend the night, and then continue their journey on Wednesday. It’s about 588 miles between the two towns.
The Class A divisional tournament was a different format with the lower seeded team traveling to the higher seeded team rather than all the teams being at one place. Corvallis was the No. 1 seed from the Southwest and was host to Ronan on Thursday. Ronan defeated Libby in the play-in game last Wednesday.
Corvallis had some uncharacteristic mistakes in their match against Ronan, most notably, several unforced errors and net serves. Ronan took advantage of those and took an early lead in the first game. Ronan’s Madeline McCrea was a force at the net and kept Corvallis from building any momentum.
“We didn’t have much time to watch film,” said Corvallis coach Laurie Jones. “We didn’t come up with a sufficient game plan.”
Corvallis switched up their defense several times to change the flow of the game but they just couldn’t take McCrea and Olivia Clairmont, their other tall middle blocker, out of the game. Ronan won the first game, 25-17.
In the second game, Ronan once again took the lead but then Corvallis came back to pull within one point on an ace by Brooklyn Powell, and then again with a kill by Madeline Gilder. But the Blue Devils couldn’t sustain the drive and lost the second game, 25-22.
The third game looked like Corvallis might turn things around with tough serving. But midway through, McCrea hat a big block and then served up nine points to give the Maidens an edge. Corvallis fell, 25-18.
That loss set up a loser out game against Hamilton. Hamilton had advanced to the tournament after defeating Dillon – 21-25, 25-23, 25-20, 19-25, 15-10 – in the play in game on Wednesday. In their first game of the tournament, Hamilton took on Polson and lost, 3-2.
Corvallis won their match against Hamilton, 25-15, 25-20, 25-16. Gilder led the Blue Devils with 16 digs, 14 kills and three aces. Powell had 29 assists and Jenna Jordan had two blocks. Layne Kearns had 12 digs, five kills, and one block for Hamilton.
Corvallis then advanced to play Whitefish. The winner of this game would advance to the state tournament. The Blue Devils won in four games, 25-17,23-25, 25-15, 25-13. Gilder continued to dominate at the net with 11 kills. Madison Lewis and Gabby Kruiger each had two blocks. Jordan had 18 digs.
“Jenna Jordan, her hitting percentage was over 500 for the tournament, she was really consistent,” said Jones.
Corvallis played Ronan for seeding purposes on Monday night. The results of that match were not in at press time.
Corvallis will play Hardin if they defeat Ronan, or they will play Billings Central if they lose.
“It will be quite the adventure,” said Jones. “It’s the farthest we’ve ever travelled.”