Charlo takes second

Jenna Cederberg

ST. REGIS - It was the same old story for the Vikings last weekend. All season, it's been Charlo and Hot Springs vying for supremacy in District 10-C volleyball. They went 1-1 in regular season play, with Hot Springs eking out the No. 1 seed due to a stronger record.

At the divisional tournament this past weekend, the teams met in three more matches.

After a total of 12 games, Hot Springs took the crown with seven wins. Both teams still earned places at the divisional tournament in Butte this weekend. Charlo will play Gardiner at 2 p.m. on Thursday.

"I think both teams are pretty evenly matched," head coach Sheryl Kain said. "When they made their mistakes, we didn't capitalize on them like we should have."

Charlo beat Noxon 3-0 in the first match of the tournament and Hot Springs had a bye, which set up the first Viking-Heat match-up. After Friday's play, the team went home for a good night's sleep, Kain said, but had an early start for their upcoming matches.

In the undefeated match, Charlo jumped out early with a 25-22 game-one win. Hot Springs forced a game four with wins in game two, 25-21, and three, 25-21.

Behind the hot arm of junior hitter Stephanie Murphy, who had a team-leading 30 kills, the Vikings came back, winning a barn-burner game four, 29-27 and game five, 15-9. Charlo got around Hot Springs' seven blocks, recording a whopping 101 digs. Junior setter Stephanie Maughan had all of the team's 39 assists.

The Vikings were helped throughout the weekend by younger and less experienced players, Kain said. In the team's first match against Hot Springs, freshman Kinley Pope had a team-leading 20 digs. Freshman Jazmine Hernandez-Kelley had five of the team's 15 aces.

A 3-1 Hot Springs win over Superior led into the second Viking-Heat match. Hot Springs had the uphill battle, coming from the loser side of the bracket, but this time, Kain said her team was unable to capitalize on the Heat's mistakes, lost the edge of the evenly matched teams and was defeated 3-0.

"We had a couple injuries and a couple issues going on," Kain said. "Both teams played hard and unfortunately we lost. The fans definitely got their money's worth."

The Vikings temporarily lost Maughan to a bloody nose in the championship match. The team also lost players to a migraine and a sore elbow.

"I didn't know if I was a coach or a doctor. I mean, not making excuses, but when you're dealing with that, it's tough," Kain said.

Still, Charlo kept it close, barely losing game one, 26-24, and getting into the 20s in both games two and three. Despite the bloody nose, Maughan had a team-leading 17 assists. Murphy had 12 kills and three blocks. Hernandez-Kelley again led the Vikings with three aces, but overall the team suffered from Hot Springs' 14 aces and 27 kills.

Hot Springs' earlier loss to Charlo forced a second championship match.

"I kept trying to tell them that we're playing to win. Just keep going. It ends up being a long day … I know at the end of the day, I was exhausted," Kain said.

Again, Kain emphasized that it was a match either team was capable of winning. Charlo came out with the game one win, 25-22, and again put Hot Springs in a do-or-die comeback situation with a 25-19 game two win.

The Heat rose to the challenge and swept games three through five, 25-21, 25-22 and 15-9. Stats on both sides were close, both teams were swinging hard, forcing a high number of digs (Charlo 116, Hot Spring 93).

Junior hitter Jaris Kelley made an immediate impact after being out with a wrist injury, recording a team-leading 25 digs.

"Jaris dug the ball up like we all know she can," Kain said.

Maughan had 46 assists and four aces. Murphy also had four aces, along with 23 kills and two blocks. Kain said the high number of kills and blocks showed that both teams "battled through," and that two good teams were going to represent their district at divisionals.

This week the team will focus on getting healthy, and Kain hopes the Vikings can maintain the team play it had during district.

"Divisionals should be good," Kain said. "Our first match is … against Gardiner. We have played them before, so that is encouraging, even though they beat us. I think we have improved since that match and I am confident that it will be a good match-up."