'Beeter Volleyball Team in Billings, Competing at the Big Sky State Games

The Chinook Sugarbeeter Volleyball team came together to form a single team with the availability to compete at the Big Sky State Games in Billings this past weekend.

Because of the age disparity they had to compete in the 11-12 grade division that included 10 other teams, including Class AA and Class A. The girls then asked 'Beeter Volleyball Coach Tess Langford to coach them.

In Pool play, along side Billings West, Colstrip and Butte the girls played well, falling by just a few points in each contest. In Power Pool play they opened with Billings Senior going 1-1 before an ankle injury slowed them down.

The 'Beeters went into the tournament as the No. 11 seed and began play against No. 6 Fairview. The girls played well and won in two sets.

The win set up a match against No. 3 Helena where they fell in two sets, sending the girls to the loser out bracket.

In the single set format the girls fell to Billings Senior by just two points. "The girls had set the goal to have fun, learn some new things and stay competitive against some A and AA schools. They sure did that," said Langford afterwords.

"I was so impressed with how they were able to hang in there with them. We served very well. Other teams really struggled with our servers and our block was solid. We saw some pretty big teams and our block caused them to really change their game plan," added Langford. "The girls were really able to experience volleyball played at a higher level and they met the challenge. I had a ton of compliments from parents and coaches about our girls, scrappy, resilient, impressive, positive. Those were some of the words they used to describe them. I'm very excited about the upcoming season and I know the girls are as well!!!"