Hot Springs to host 10C tourney

Round and round it goes, where it stops, nobody knows...

The District 10C volleyball carousel will continue to spin in Hot Springs later this week with the district tournament but, by Friday evening, the top two teams in the conference will be determined and those squads can start making plans for the Western C divisional tournament in Manhattan Nov. 1-3.

Sanders County squads Hot Springs, Noxon and Plains will enter the fray in Hot Springs all thinking they have a chance of being one of those top two teams, and all three are probably right about that line of thought.

The top five teams in the regular season – Charlo, Arlee and the Sanders County trio – have spent most of the season trading wins, although Charlo somehow escaped losing to a conference foe, so far at least.

"I am not sure how they got through unbeaten, I know all of the other teams have played them tough," Hot Springs coach Alisha Pablo said. "But I do know this tournament would be a good time to beat them, and they have a big target on their backs."

The tournament begins Thursday and wraps up in Hot Springs Friday.

Plains will play Noxon at 11:45 a.m. Thursday followed by Hot Springs against St. Regis at 1:30 p.m. The winner of the Noxon-Plains match will play top-seeded Charlo and the Hot Springs-St. Regis survivor will face off with No. 2 Arlee later Thursday.

Pablo thinks every team has a legitimate shot of moving on, including her Savage Heat.

"We went four or five games with everyone in the league, including Charlo," she said. "We think our chances are good as anyone else's, especially having the tournament in Hot Springs.

"Whatever ends up happening, this should be a very interesting tournament."

All three Sanders County teams wrapped up regular season play last week.

Coach Jesse Butcher and her Trotters lost 26-24, 25-27, 25-22, 25-23 to Arlee in Plains, coach Teri Wilkinson and her Noxon Lady Red Devils fell 18-25, 21-25, 25-17, 25-14, 15-11 to Charlo in Noxon, and the Heat burned Darby 25-17, 25-10, 25-8 in Hot Springs. All those matches were played Tuesday, Oct. 16.

Noxon reportedly played at St. Regis Wednesday but results of that match were not available.

Kylee Altmiller led Plains against Arlee with 18 kills and four blocks, Haley Josephson and Dakota Butcher hit 14 set assists each, Audrey Brown had 23 digs and Josephson ripped four service aces.

Noelle West spiked 10 kills and hit five aces for Arlee, Emily Fiddler hit 22 digs and Sonya Rogers 25 assists.

Noxon's Kristina Brown and Delaney Weltz floored 11 kills each against Charlo, Weltz also blocked seven shots, Riley Richter hit 32 assists and Madi Koonce had 29 digs.

Kiva Mchail hit 14 kills for Charlo and Kaitlin Cox 10, and Teaira Truman hit up 41 assists.

Katelyn Christensen of Hot Springs spanked 11 kills and blocked four shots against Darby, Sydney Jackson hit 16 assists and twin sister Sage Jackson had 14 digs and four service aces.

Casey Ehmann hit five kills and McKenzie Clark eight digs for Darby.