Lady Trojans hosting two

It is another week of pivotal matches for the Whitehall High School volleyball team.

The Lady Trojans will be hosting two home games, the first a conference matchup Thursday against Broadwater. The team will also be hosting Three Forks on Friday, September 21. The game had originally been scheduled for Saturday, but was moved to be part of the Friday Homecoming festivities.

"The moving of our homecoming game to match the boy's football game is great. I think it's awesome to have the parade and all the fun festivities of home coming actually fall before our game, instead of after. I think that it will help get the girls more excited to work hard in practice and to perform there best at the game," said head coach Sage Hengst.

The Lady Trojans are coming off a busy week with three games in five days, the first a 25-19, 25-19, 25 12 loss at Anaconda. After a 3-0 loss at home Thursday to against Deer Lodge, Whitehall wrapped up their week in a 25-10, 25-11, 25-16 loss against rival Jefferson.

Hengst felt the Anaconda game went well and the team did some great things on the court, they just couldn't finish. Against Deer Lodge, she said having only one practice between the two games did not help her team.

"We were focused on making some rotation changes and only having one practice to go over them definitely didn't help us against Deer Lodge. The rotation changes, I felt were necessary. We want to keep working at the rotation until we find a good fit for all the girls, and to be at our best when it comes to districts," Hengst said. "Our net defense during the Deer Lodge game was great. We had lots of touches which helps our back row be able to dig up those hard hits and we also had some great blocks but we just fell short on hitting. It just wasn't clicking in that game."

Because of an injury to starter Kendra Klapan, eighth grader Maxine Hoagland made the start. Hengst feels Hoagland will do great and handle her own on the varsity level, but said they will once again be playing with a different rotation.

And we just haven't had the time to work out the kinks," she said. "I'm really excited to have 3 days of practice before our next game next week. It is much needed to go over some of the areas we are struggling in and give the girls a little bit of a breather."