Prep volleyball: Great Falls High defeats Butte

With one captain down, another had to step up.

And Libbey Fellows did just that.

The high-rising, 5-foot-6 senior had 16 kills and 18 digs Tuesday night as the Great Falls High Bison defeated the Butte Bulldogs in straight sets: 25-23, 25-23, 25-23.

“I thought it really went well,” GFH head coach Katherine Sunwall said. “We are missing our other captain. Nora Klick is out with a back injury, so that is a big loss for us. But at the same time, I thought we stepped up. People stepped up and did a great job. (Sarah) Dutro is only a sophomore. She came in and filled that role and did a great job … We played very well as a team today.”

Fellows can jump higher than everybody else and she can hit the ball harder than everybody else. It’s a deadly combination for opposing teams. She has the hops that allow her to see over the net, but Butte head coach Dale Burgman was impressed with her velocity when she hit the ball. Fellows is tough to defend, he said.

“And hit it hard, did you notice that?” Burgman said.

“You saw the one that she drilled into the back row that we got a hand on, and it almost went through the roof. But yeah, it’s tough. It’s really tough.”

It was a closely contested three sets inside a warm and mostly filled Swarthout Fieldhouse.

In the second set, GFH found itself behind 23-22, only to come from behind and win 25-23.

“Early in the season, those are the times that we folded,” Sunwall said. “And now we are starting to learn to play under that pressure.”

Fellows made two incredible plays to secure the sweep in the final set: A hard kill to break a 23-all tie and then an acrobatic dig with her left arm that kept a play alive and eventually ended the night.

“She is our captain; she is our leader,” Sunwall said of Fellows. “She came out swinging hard today. She had a great game – just digging balls, hitting seam real hard. She just had a great game.”

Klick is out with a back injury, the length of time Sunwall says is indefinite and could last the season. Fellows had to step up and she did.

The senior said she realized she was really short for a volleyball player and had to make up for it in other ways. Her trainer helped with that. Fellows says she has a 27-inch vertical jump.

Sunwall commented on the amount of work Fellows put in this summer to getting her vertical up.

“I thought we played well as a team,” Fellows said. “This rotation is working well for us.”

“It is a huge loss,” Sunwall said of Klick’s absence. “She is our spark plug. She is kind of the person that gets us going.”

The Bison improved to 1-0 in conference play and 2-6 on the season. Butte fell to 0-3 in conference and 2-5 overall.

“For us, I was pleased,” said Butte head coach Dale Burgman. “Our serve and receive has been terrible up until this game, and I thought we did a good job passing the ball and being able to do something with it. They kicked the butt out of us on Friday at the Great Falls Invitational. We didn’t win a set, but I am really pleased with how well we played.”

As for GFH, Sunwall says you can’t ask for anything better than 1-0 in conference.

“I thought earlier in the season we were struggling, and then we found that right rotation,” Sunwall said. “And then we lost another one. So now we’re working on another rotation. They are responding very well to the different changes and switches that we’re seeing … I am excited where we are going.”