Lady Trojans open district play Friday

It's postseason time for the Whitehall High School volleyball team.

The Lady Trojans will open the District 5B Volleyball Tournament Friday against Manhattan. The game will take place at 10 a.m. at the Belgrade Events Center.

If sixth seeded Whitehall wins their first game against the third seeded Lady Tigers, they will next play at 1 p.m. against second seeded Jefferson County High School.

If the Lady Trojans drop their opener, they will play a loser out contest at 5:15 p.m. against Big Timber or Townsend. Passes to the tournament are available at the high school office. The cost is $14 for adults and $10 for students.

Whitehall last played Manhattan October 5 in Whitehall. The Lady Trojans came out of the gates quickly, but lost in three sets (25-19, 25-9, 25-9).

Whitehall ended their regular season Tuesday, October 17 with a three set home loss (25-12, 25-11, 25-11) to Three Forks. Playing in her last game at home, senior Alexys Mercer had a huge night for the Lady Trojans with 13 blocks.

With 10 days since their last game, head coach Lauren McDonald said the team will focus this week on returning hard serves, positioning themselves to line up with hits, and working on rotations. The team wil also be working to get their bench players in different positions so they will be ready if there is an injury.

"We're still pushing that mental toughness/strength and we're stressing that we have to go in there playing to win, not just playing to not lose. I think it will be a good week of tough practices. The girls are hard workers and they'll push themselves all week long. They've got a really good team mentality and they're starting to lean on one another more which helps in every aspect," McDonald said.