Lady Hawks bring home first place trophy from District Tourney

The situation last Thursday looked dire for the Lady Hawks, as they fell to the Wibaux Lady Longhorns in the first match of the tournament. The Lady Longhorns were 2-10 in the regular season, and had just beaten the 8-4 Lady Hawks. Broadus Head Coach Gordon Archer told us that Wibaux had improved greatly over the course of the season, and played the net well against Broadus. With the first-round loss to Wibaux, the Lady Hawk's fate seemed to be that of the Broadus teams the last two seasons, destined to end their season at the District Tournament.

As the Wibaux match finished up, a visibly distraught Broadus team dejectedly made their way to the locker room. Broadus Head Coach Gordon Archer remained calm and collected, and let the team vent their frustrations. Later that evening, he called a team meeting back at the hotel, where the team realized their path forward was perhaps not as impossible as it seemed immediately following the loss. Yes, the Lady Hawks would need to win several games in a row, but the teams they faced to reach the third place round were all teams they had beaten before. From there, the sky was the limit.

With regained confidence, Broadus rested up and prepared to face Plevna in loser out play on Friday at 8 AM. Plevna has not had a volleyball team before this season, and their first taste of tournament play was evident as the Lady Hawks beat Plevna in three straight sets, 25-10, 25-4, 25-10. Broadus players had some impressive highlights in the match, including Mia Mader's 15 straight serves to finish off the first games, with 13 aces, immediately followed by Lauryn Billing scoring 18 points off serves in the second game.

Broadus next faced Ekalaka, which Broadus had already beaten three times this season. Coach Archer told us that beating any team four times in a season is tough, but Broadus seemed to hold the advantage in confidence going into the tournament match. Archer said that the first game could've gone either way, but Broadus held strong to win 26-24, and from there on out the Lady Hawks held down the throttle to win 25-10 and 25-20.

The two quick wins in three games each against Plevna and Ekalaka would prove fortuitous for Broadus, as their next challenger would not go down so easy, and the added "gas in the tank" from the shorter games played earlier in the day would be to the advantage of the Lady Hawks.

Next up, Broadus had a chance to avenge their first round loss against Wibaux. This would be the third match of the day for Broadus, scheduled for 8 pm, 12 hours after the Lady Hawk's first match of the day. The test of endurance would come during a match which would determine who would move on to Divisionals, this week in Sidney and Fairview. Winner moves on, loser goes home to wait until next season.

"This match seemed like we were either at the top of a mountain, or the bottom of a valley," Archer spoke of the second Wibaux match. Wibaux came out on top 25-20 in the first game, with Broadus battling back 25-17 in the second. In the third game, Wibaux came out on top 25-22. Now facing elimination, Broadus had to play an error free match to force a fifth game, and the Lady Hawks did just that, winning the fourth 25-18.

In the fifth and final match, Archer told us that things were looking good – Broadus was up 12-8 in the 15 point game. Suddenly the momentum seemed to shift, and Wibaux was only a point behind, at 12-11. Archer called his final time out to try and rally the troops, but it didn't seem to work, as Wibaux went up 14-12 and were within a point of sending the Lady Hawks home. Then the stars seemed to align for Broadus, as they received a point on a side out, and Lauryn Billing stepped up and served an ace. Broadus then scored again, and Wibaux called time out to try and ice Billing's serve, but it was to no avail. Billing made a good serve, Broadus scored, won the match, and would move on to Divisionals.

"That was as deep of a hole as we've been in all year," Archer said of the match. "The girls stepped up and did what it took to win. I've seen veteran teams fold under that pressure, and to see a group of freshmen and sophomores step up when it was needed was truly impressive."

Indeed, the young Broadus team has shown their tenacity throughout the season, coming back from injury and several matches missed due to the COVID shutdown. With no upperclassmen on the team to offer advice, the Lady Hawks have relied on their experienced coaching staff and their own grit to take them to the next level.

Following the Wibaux match, the Lady Hawks returned to the hotel for some much needed rest – as Gordon described it: "They were extremely tired but extremely happy."

Jordan had knocked off conference number one Circle on Friday, so Broadus now faced Circle on Saturday morning. The loss to Jordan had been Circle's first loss of the season against a conference team, and they weren't going to let Broadus beat them without a fight.

Archer told us that the match went back and forth, with Broadus winning the first game 25-17, followed by Circle winning the second 25-18, and the third 25-15.

Broadus then regained the momentum and won the next two games 25-18 and 15-13. The tenacity of Circle could perhaps best be summed up with one stat – Broadus had 103 digs in the match, which shows a testament to just how much back and forth play took place over the five games – by comparison the previous night's match against Wibaux only had 83 digs for Broadus.

"Everybody on the team contributed to the win against Circle, and I'm really proud of their performance," Archer beamed as he described the win.

Now it was on to the championship match. In a twist of fate, between the Friday matches and the Saturday championship, four of Jordan's starters were found to have been exposed to COVID-19 earlier in the week while at school. This meant that Jordan had to call up some of their JV players for the tournament, which greatly affected the team's overall performance.

When speaking of the quarantine, Archer said that a similar occurrence with his own team had been his fear all season. "I want to thank Activities Director Mike Richards for enforcing the mask mandate in the gym. I know it was unpopular for some people, but he very well may have prevented a similar occurrence as to what happened to Jordan with our team."

Because District Volleyball is a double elimination tournament, and Jordan had yet to lose a match, Broadus would have to beat Jordan twice in a row to bring home the first place plaque. The Lady Hawks were able to handle the mixed Jordan team handily in the first match, winning 25-16, 25-8, and 25-17, but Jordan played closer in the second match. Archer thought the combination of Jordan coalescing and communicating better as a team helped their performance the second time around, and the fact that Broadus was tired, playing in their third match of the day, for the second day in a row. Nevertheless, Broadus was still able to pull out a win in three games, winning 25-22, 25-19, and 25-18.

Following the awards, the team ate together at Mexico Lindo in Miles City. Gordon said that there wasn't much noise from the team on the trip home, as the Lady Hawks achieved some well deserved sleep on the bus ride home.

Broadus had an impressive run during the tournament, playing in seven matches over three days, when they had only played fifteen matches over the entire regular season.

Coach Archer described his team's performance at the tournament: "To say I'm extremely proud would be the understatement of the year. What the girls accomplished up there was nothing short of amazing."

Broadus, along with Jordan and Circle in second and third places, respectively, will now move on to the Eastern C Divisional tournament, at Sidney and Fairview this week. Broadus will first face Fairview, in Sidney at 1 PM.

Fairview was 8-3 in the regular season, a record which matches up well with the Lady Hawks' 8-4 overall record. With that being said, all bets are off as far as regular season records having a bearing on tournaments, as the Lady Hawks demonstrated at Districts.

All games will be available on the NFHS Network, with Seabeck Pizza planning to show the games in Broadus.