Lady Hawks claim District 7B conference crown

It was almost as if it was meant to be. Now we will find out about the rest of the story in Anaconda.

The Thompson Falls Lady Hawks fulfilled at least part of their 2020 net destiny by sweeping to the District 7B tournament title last week, dispatching Mission 25-14, 25-10, 25-11 Thursday and then spiking Eureka 25-16, 11-25, 25-21, 25-17 in the chipper Friday.

As the Hawks had earned the top seed with a perfect conference record in the regular season, Thompson Falls hosted both matches in the friendly confines of TFHS gym.

Now comes the rest of this net story – coach Sandra Kazmierczak and the Lady Hawks will load up the bus and head to Anaconda for the Western B divisional tournament which begins Thursday. The No. 1 team from 7B, the Hawks will open their appearance at the Western B at 7 p.m. against the winner of the Bigfork-Loyola match.

Originally scheduled to face Deer Lodge in the third match of the tourney Thursday afternoon, the Lady Hawks gained a bye when Deer Lodge was forced to withdraw due to a COVID-19 quarantine incident.

Missing that first round match while their opponents are playing and getting warmed up for tournament play concerns Kazmierczak. "We may have to find some place to practice Thursday before the match with Bigfork or Loyola," she said. "It worries me that we won't have that first match like the other teams are having."

District 6B champion Anaconda will open its hosting of the Western B playing Mission at 10 a.m. Thursday, Eureka (the No. 2 7B team) will face Florence (6B's No. 3) at 12:15 p.m., followed by Loyola (No. 2 6B) versus Bigfork (No. 3 7B). The Anaconda-Mission winners will play the Eureka-Florence victors at 4:45, followed by the Lady Hawks against the Loyola-Bigfork survivors at 7 p.m.

The tourney will continue Friday and Saturday until the issue is settled.

The top two teams from the Western B qualify for the State B tournament November 12-14, and Kazmierczak and her Lady Hawks want to be one of those two teams after finishing painstakingly close last fall by winning third.

"We came close to reaching State last year and the girls really want to make it there this year," Kazmierczak said. "We are playing very well right now, our experienced players are doing great and our younger kids are stepping up just like I hoped, we look forward to seeing how we do in Anaconda."

The Lady Hawks did almost everything right in running the table to claim the 7B tourney crown.

Against Mission, which had defeated Troy in a play-in match last Tuesday to gain their spot in the tournament, the Lady Hawks hardly broke a sweat in moving to the easy victory.

The incomparable Scarlette Schwindt, only a junior but already twice an All-State B selection, led the Hawks to the win, filling her stat-line with seven digs, nine assists, seven kills and three service aces, fellow All-Stater Jody Detlaff had a team-high eight kills and four blocks, Riley Wilson seven kills and a team-best 10 assists, Abbi Lane stuff-blocked five Mission kill attempts and Ariana Wood was good for seven more digs.

Against Eureka in the 7B chipper, the Hawks won the first set 25-16 but then seemed to hit a mental roadblock in the second and fell 25-11 to the suddenly fired-up Lady Lions.

Not to worry, the Lady Hawks quickly regained their equilibrium after that and closed out the match with 25-21 and 25-17 wins of the final two sets.

"I don't know what happened in that second set," Kazmierczak said. "Eureka is a very good team, but it seemed like we couldn't get anything going there for a little bit."

The Lady Hawks rallied the old-fashioned way, by consistently rallying to the ball on every point, playing each ball to the finish; more often than not in their favor. Schwindt thinks her team is only scratching the surface of their potential.

"We have been climbing the ladder since our very first practice," she said, "and every game we come together a little more."

Schwindt spiked 13 kills, hit 14 set assists and eight digs to lead the Lady Hawk charge to the District 7B title match win, Detlaff slammed 10 kills, six blocks and two aces, Wilson dished out 17 assists and blocked three shots, Wood bumped up 10 digs and Cheyla Irvine added two service aces.

Katie Schmidt hit 15 digs and three blocks to lead Eureka, Kamber Brown posted 21 assists, reena Truman hit eight kills and Jadyn Pluid two aces.

There is excitement buzzing in the air for the Lady Hawks this week. There will not be a Montana All-Class volleyball tournament in Bozeman during the COVID-19 pandemic as each MHSA class will hold separate tourneys in two weeks.

The Lady Hawks certainly want to be playing in the 2020 State B net tourney after narrowly missing a bid to the big show last year, finishing third behind Florence and Anaconda in 2019.

"We can't wait to play, Loyola or Bigfork it doesn't matter," Kazmierczak said. "We know Loyola has been playing really well lately so we wouldn't be surprised to see them but, whatever happens, we will be ready."

Schwindt sounded a warning to Lady Hawk foes as they head into the Western B wars this week. "We played up to our potential (last week) and are truly well-rounded," she said. "And it is hard to stop a team that is firing on all cylinders."