Lady Hawks block Eureka Lions

Refuse to lose, survive the battle and emerge victorious.

Refusing to go down when faced with a pride of fired-up Lady Lions from Eureka in Thompson Falls Saturday, the resilient Lady Hawks battled back from two sets down to win 22-25, 24-26, 26-24, 25-23, 15-11.

Solidifying their grasp on the top spot in District 7B conference play with the win, coach Sandra Kazmierczak and her Lady Hawks will finish the regular season out with league matches, starting at Mission Thursday and continuing at Bigfork Saturday.

A talented well-rounded team playing very well under first-year coach Todd Brouillette, the former assistant coach in Plains, the Lions were a hungry-looking team Saturday, and scratched and clawed their way to impressive victories in the first two sets.

Team leader Scarlette Schwindt said Eureka surprised the Lady Hawks, especially after Thompson Falls' big win over previously unbeaten Charlo in Charlo Thursday.

"We were not expecting Eureka to come out swinging like that, we got caught off guard," she said. "After losing the first two coach told us that we are an amazing team and we could bail ourselves out. We took those words to heart and really put it all out there in the third, fourth and fifth sets."

"We fell behind early but were not going to give it to them," Kazmierczak said. "Not taking anything away from Eureka, but we were pretty tired too after having played Plains and Charlo earlier last week. The girls rose to the occasion though."

Indeed, the last three sets, like the first two, were down-to-the-wire slugfests that produced long rallies, including lots of hard hits, solid digs and great reaction plays by both teams.

Strong stretches of effective serving from Schwindt helped the Hawks fight back to win after falling behind early in both the third and fourth sets. Still, the Hawks looked to be teetering on the precipice of defeat when they fell behind 11-7 in the decisive fifth set.

Not to worry, Lady Hawk sophomore Cheyla Irvine then served up eight straight winning points, with an ace on point No. 11 and a nice touch kill from Jody Detlaff sprinkled in during that run on No. 13 as the Hawks came back to close out the match with the 15-11 win.

Flying all over the Hawks' side of the court all match long, Schwindt recorded an amazing stat line of 15 digs, 14 kills, eight assists and five service aces, Detlaff blocked six shots and floored 11 kills, and Riley Wilson dished out 28 set assists.

Danni VanHuss was good for 10 kills, Abbi Lane six blocks, Elli Pardee 12 digs, four assists and two aces, Ariana Wood contributed 10 digs and Irvine two more aces.

Katie Schmidt hit 16 kills for Eureka, Reena Truman 12 blocks, Jadyn Pluid had 32 digs, Kamber Brown 37 assists and Pluid and Rhianna Hawkins two aces apiece.

In other action last week, the Hawks, as stated earlier, defeated Charlo (25-18, 21-25, 25-15, 25-20 Thursday) and Plains (25-14, 25-7, 25-5 in Plains Tuesday).

At Charlo, Schwindt lit up 11 kills, four aces, 14 digs and 15 set assists, Detlaff clobbered another 11 kills and added two blocks, two aces and eight digs, VanHuss blasted seven kills, blocked a shot and hit five digs, Lane smacked five kills and blocked three shots, Wilson three kills, nine digs and 13 assists, Pardee four kills, four digs and four assists, Irvine two aces and Wood 14 digs.

Carlee Fryberger hit nine kills and 12 digs for Charlo and Hayleigh Smith eight more kills.

In Plains, Schwindt hit eight kills, seven aces and six assists, VanHuss knocked down seven kills and a block, Detlaff five kills, two blocks and two aces, Lane four Ks and a block, and Wilson passed out 14 assists.

Dacia Black, Jeylin Carr and Kellen Burrows hit a kill each for the Trotters, Black hit four digs, Piper Bergstrom two blocks and Ocean Hyde a service ace.

The dynamic Schwindt said she is becoming really fond of her Lady Hawk teammates and the team they have become recently as the season marches on. "This team is beautiful," she offered, "and I am extremely thankful for the way we have grown together these past few weeks."