Gracie Gali sets the volleyball up for her teammates at the District Tournament in Glendive, in the photos courtesy of Kayleigh Nisley.
Lady Hawks play in Glendive, in the photo above.
The Broadus Lady Hawks entered the 2C District Tournament last Thurday as the number #3 seed, trailing Savage and Circle. By Saturday afternoon after playing six matches in three days, they would exit the tournament as the #2 seed from the district. Here's how their path was arranged:
In the first match of the tournament, Broadus went up against Ekalaka, winning in four sets, 25-13, 17-25, 25-17, and 25-8, in an auspicious start to the tournament for Broadus.
On Friday, Broadus lost to Savage in five sets, 25-21, 22-25, 17-25, 25-17, and 13-15. Broadus Coach Monica Smith told us that a combination of perhaps overlooking Savage and not having beaten them yet this season affected the girls' confidence in the close loss. She talked to the team afterwards, emphasizing the need to be confident in themselves and believe in themselves. As has been the case when the chips got down this season, the team seemed to take their coach's speech to heart, and moved forward with confidence through the remainder of the tournament.
Broadus next played Forsyth, beating them handily in three straight sets, 25-19, 25-10, and 25-14.
The win put Broadus into contention with Jordan, on Saturday morning beginning at 10 AM. That match would mark the beginning of nearly five straight hours of play for the Lady Hawks, paused only by the 20 minute warm-up breaks between matches, which of course aren't really breaks as the team was still at and on the court in preparation.
Broadus took Jordan in three sets, 25-16, 27-25, and 25-22, in a match that was a great showing for Jordan after losing one of their players in a car wreck earlier in the week.
This second time around the Lady Hawks took their coach's advice to heart, beating Savage in five sets, 25-18, 17-25, 19-25, 25-20, and 15-7, decisively taking the fifth set, to move into the championship.
The Lady Hawks, now in their third match of the day, faced off against Circle, a team which has been fairly unstoppable in the district this season. With Circle playing on fresh legs and a season of confident play under their belts, they took down Broadus in three sets, with Broadus losing 20-25, 10-25, and 22-25.
With the second place trophy, the Lady Hawks will now enter the Eastern C Divisional as the #2 seed, playing North Country on Thursday at noon, in Sidney.
Last season North Country seemed unstoppable with their tall set of players until losing to Broadus in Divisionals at Sidney. In the ensuing year, three of the North Country players would go on to play sports in college, including Teagan Erickson, who is now a 6'2" basketball forward for Montana State. Due to losing some height from graduating players, North Country seems a bit less daunting than last season but is still expected to be a very formidable foe, as are many of the teams from the District 1C.
To prepare for the tournament, Coach Smith plans to continue what the team has been doing all season – fine tuning their game and developing their confidence, teamwork, ability to work hard, and communication.
Full stats from the tournament, and other games this season that we didn't have room to print are available in the online edition.
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