VB: Lady Vikings rebound from districts, impress at divisionals
Charlo takes down one-loss Drummond team, beats Arlee and
Seeley-Swan all in one day
BUTTE - After dropping their first match to Harrison in the first game of the Western C Divisional tournament, the Lady Vikings went on to unleash a world of hurt against some excellent competition last weekend in Butte and were two wins away from the state tournament.
"I thought we did well," Charlo head coach Sheryl Kain said. "I was really proud of the girls."
On Thursday, The Lady Vikings lost 25-22, 25-18, 25-16 to Harrison despite eight kills from Rachel Hoyt and six blocks and nine assists from Dawn Blevins.
"Every match they got better," Kain said.
And boy did they ever. Charlo downed Seeley-Swan 3-0 (25-15, 25-16, 25-9) thanks to 10 kills apiece by Kinley Pope and Deondra Brown. Pope also showed her versatility as a player with 22 digs and Derika Stipe had 19 assists for the Lady Vikings. Kelsey Blevins had seven kills and Hoyt had six to add to the offense.
Then that set up a Mission Valley showdown as Charlo faced Arlee, a team that handed them a knockout loss in the district tournament two weeks ago. The Lady Vikings got revenge and downed the Scarlets 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-14) behind 14 kills by Deondra Brown. Pope was again solid on defense with 22 of the team's 87 digs and posted 10 kills. Kelsey Blevins was also strong with 17 digs.
Dawn Blevins and Stipe again were key in dishing out the ball with 16 and 14 assists respectively.
However, as big as their win over Arlee was, Charlo got a huge victory over the 21-1 Drummond Lady Trojans. The Lady Vikings got 15 kills from Brown, nine from Pope and eight from Hoyt as they downed Drummond in five sets (25-27, 25-19, 23-25, 25-16, 15-12).
"Beating Drummond was a really good win for the girls," Kain said. "I don't think we have beat Drummond since I've started coaching here."
On defense, Brown and Kelsey Blevins both had 26 digs apiece while Dawn Blevins had 20 and Pope added 19. In all, Charlo had 121 team digs.
The Lady Vikings had gone undefeated on Friday but needed two wins on Saturday to get to the state tournament.
Charlo looked much improved against Harrison but fell 3-1 (25-20, 13-25, 25-22, 25-21) to end the season. The Lady Vikings had a balanced attack as Brown had 11 kills, Pope had 10 and Hoyt and Kelsey Blevins both had nine apiece.
Digging was also a team effort as five different girls got into double digits. Kelsie Blevins led with 28 digs, Pope had 25, Dawn Blevins had 19, Hoyt had 15 and Brown had 14.
"They can't feel bad about the way they played," Kain said.
The Lady Vikings say goodbye to four seniors: Dawn Blevins, Brown, Kelsey Blevins and Pope.
"I wish I could keep the girls next year," Kain said. "They're a good group of girls and they're good role models. They're almost too nice. I'm going to miss them and the underclassmen are going to miss them too."
Dawn Blevins and Pope were named to the All-State team this year in volleyball, and both earned All-conference honors along with Rachel Hoyt.