Granite beats Victor in four, evens record at 6-6
PHILIPSBURG – The Granite Lady Prospectors started all seniors Tuesday nightin their District 13C finale and ended with a strong fourth set to claim a 3-1 win from the visiting Lady Pirates.
The locals end district play at 6-6 and in the middle of the pack in fourth place. That puts them into the second match of the District 13C tournament at 10 a.m. October 27th. They’ll play the third place Eagles at 11:45 a.m. on their home floor at Valley Christian in Missoula.
The senior six made up of Lucia Lee, Gretchen Hill, Kyla Reisenauer, Marina Flores, Abby Parret and Regan McDonald battled through the first two sets to claim 25-23 and 25-20 victories. But in the third they started to struggle and that’s when GHS Head Coach Kaley Hansen decided that it was time to try and get things back on track by inserting of the younger, normal starters back into the mix. The infusion worked, but not enough to stop the 25-21 loss to Victor.
“After having the seniors in there for the first two sets I think they were kind of cold and had to figure it back out,” said Hansen of her team’s play. “Communication is the big thing heading into the tournament. We’ve been talking about communication and trusting each other. I watched ‘Father Stu” over the weekend and Mark Wahlberg’s character says, ‘Hope is not a tactic.’ so I’ve been trying to talk to the girls about that. We can’t just hope that we’ll win a game, we have to trust each other and work to make that happen.”
The Lady Pirates took an early lead in the fourth set, but it was brief as the Lady Prospectors rallied to catch and pass them in the way to a 25-18 victory.
Lee and Hill led the attack with seven kills each, while Marina Flores was close behind with five. Lee and Hill also had 3-1/2 blocks each. Ella Tallon played just 1-1/2 sets but led in assists with eight, with Reisenauer adding six. Hill also led in digs with nine while Emily White notched a game-best six service aces.
For her play, Hill was tabbed as the Kiko’s Mexican restaurant Player of the Game.
Granite will get a chance to fine tune its game for the coming postseason Thursday when they close out regular season play again Superior at home.
SCORING
Victor – 23/20/25/18 – 1
Granite – 25/25/21/25 – 3
GRANITE STATISTICS
Kills – Lee 7, Hill 7, MarFlores 5, Piar 2, McDonald 1, Parret 1, Reisenauer 1, Sowders 1
Blocks – Lee 3.5, Hill 3.5, McDonald 1
Assists – Hill 1, Tallon 8, McDonald 1, Reisenauer 6
Digs – Lee 5, Hill 9, Flores 5, Tallon 1, MayFlores 4, Piar 6, McDonald 4, Parret 7, Reisenauer 7
Aces – Lee 1, Hill 1, Flores 1, Tallon 1, Piar 1, White 6, Parret 4, Reisenauer 1, Lilyquist 2
Junior Varsity
Granite def. Victor
23-25, 25-16, 15-9, 15-3
After dropping the opening set, the Granite JV rallied to close out their season with a win over Victor.
Marina Flores and Addi Lilyquist each had four fills, with Flores also adding in a staggering 13 service aces. Allison Benson led in assists with seven.
