Lady Hawks outlast Lady Copperheads

The more the Lady Hawks play together, the better they get. And that should be a scary thought for the rest of the volleyball teams in the Western B division.

The young Lady Hawks split a pair of home matches with Western B teams last week, falling 18-25, 15-25, 25-23, 25-15, 15-4 to Deer Lodge Thursday and scrapping past Anaconda 20-25, 32-30, 25-15, 19-25, 15-13 Saturday.

Coach Sandra Kazmierczak and her Lady Hawks will play their first District 7B conference match of the season at Eureka Saturday. The Hawks will visit Plains for a non-conference match with the rival Class C Trotters Tuesday.

"We are excited to play Eureka and look forward to meeting Plains," Kazmierczak said. "I'm impressed with how we are playing and like seeing how we are improving from match to match."

She liked how her Hawks competed in both matches last week.

"It was good for us going five in both of those matches," she said. "These are the kind of tests we need in order to get better."

The match with Anaconda was particularly beneficial. The Hawks trailed 13-11 in the decisive fifth set before freshman Scarlette Schwindt stepped up to the service line and sent Thompson Falls to the win.

Schwindt, who played an outstanding all-around match to lead the Hawks statistically, calmly rifled in four straight hard-to-handle serves, including an ace, to give the Hawks the victory. She ended the match with 15 kills, 13 set assists and 12 digs.

Belle Cooper and Jody Detlaff added 13 kills apiece, and Brooke Bowlin had seven kills, three stuff blocks and 10 digs. Cooper also contributed two blocks and Detlaff one, in addition to 10 digs.

Sarah Detlaff came up with a team-high 18 digs and two service aces, Riley Wilson had 27 set assists, 13 digs and two kills, and Maya Stiles chipped in 11 more digs.

"That was a great match," Kazmierczak said. "All the kids stepped up and Scarlette finished it really well with her serving."

Logan Stetzner had 18 kills, two blocks, 13 digs and two service aces to pace Anaconda.

The Lady Hawks fell to Deer Lodge after winning the first two sets.

Jody Detlaff had 16 kills, five blocks and five digs to lead Thompson Falls in that match, Schwindt was good for nine Ks, 15 assists, 10 aces and 13 digs, Cooper rang up seven kills, two blocks and seven digs, and Bowlin chipped in with six kills, two blocks, eight digs and served 100% on 15 attempts.

Wilson dished out 20 assists and hit seven digs.

Jessie Gravely hit

five kills and blocked five shots to lead Deer Lodge.