Savage Heat leaves Vikings smoldering

The Charlo Lady Vikings just couldn’t hold off the Hot Springs Lady Savage Heat at the District 10-C Volleyball Tournament this past weekend.

The Lady Savage Heat had a stunning tournament, with their only loss coming to Charlo.

The tournament started Friday afternoon at 12 p.m. It had originally been scheduled to start at 10 a.m. but Two Eagle had to drop out of the tournament forcing a bye against Noxon.

In the first match number four seed Superior took on number two seed St. Regis in a showdown between the two Mineral County rivals. After a five game match, Superior ended up victorious 3-2 and advanced on to play Hot Springs at 4 p.m.

At 2 p.m. number three seed Noxon played their first game against number two seed Charlo. In the first game of the match Noxon gave Charlo a run for their money keeping things close, however it wasn’t enough as Charlo won 25-19. The other two games were close to, but not close enough for Noxon. Charlo won the second game 25-17 and 25-15 for the third game. Noxon had 13 kills with Lindsey Franz collecting six of them, they also had two blocks with Chandler Wilkinson getting one and Franz getting the other. For digs there were 21 and Wilkinson and Melissa Osborne each had five. The Lady Red Devils had 16 assists with Bethany Brown getting nine of them. Wilkinson also collected the team’s two aces.

For the 4 p.m. game Hot Springs took on Superior with Hot Springs being victorious 3-1. The first game was a blowout with Hot Springs winning 25-8. Rachel Ambo sealed the victory for the Lady Savage Heat with 12 consecutive points off her serves to give the team 25. In the second game Superior came back with a strong showing and beat Hot Springs 25-19. The third game remained close at the beginning, but Hot Springs prevailed 25-16, the Lady Savage Heat then won game four 25-12. The Lady Savage Heat had 31 kills, with Matea DePoe collecting 11 of them. There were two blocks for Hot Springs and Ambo along with Devon White each got one. The team had 44 digs and Ambo had 11, they also had 21 assists with MacKenzie Wood getting 13. The Lady Savage Heat also had 28 aces and Ambo had 12 of them.

In the 6 p.m. game of the first day of tournament play St. Regis took on Noxon and won 3-2. St. Regis won 25-18, 20-25, 25-20, 23-25, and 15-10. The loss kicked Noxon out of the tournament, but kept St. Regis’ hopes alive. Noxon had 30 kills and Franz got 11, she also had three of the team’s four blocks. The Lady Red Devils had 32 digs and Wilkinson and Franz each had seven. Noxon had 30 assists and Shelby Swant had 16 of them. The team had six aces with Brown getting half of them.

Matches resumed Saturday morning at 10 a.m. with Charlo and Hot Springs going head to head in an exciting match-up. Both teams only had one loss for the regular season and their losses came from each other. While Hot Springs kept the first game close, Charlo ended up winning 25-22. In the second game the Lady Savage Heat dominated beating the Lady Vikings 25-11. MacKenzie Wood stretched the lead out collecting 13 consecutive points off of her serves. Game three also went to Hot Springs, although the score was much closer, coming down to 25-21. Game four went to Charlo in extra points, with Charlo only able to beat Hot Springs 29-27. In game five Charlo came alive beating Hot Springs 15-9.

For kills for the Lady Savage Heat Randi Arnold had 23 of the team’s 48. The team had seven blocks with DePoe, Fisher and White each getting two. The Lady Savage Heat had an incredible 75 digs with DePoe getting 18 of them There were 37 assists for the Lady Savage Heat and MacKenzie Wood had an astonishing 34 of them. There were 23 aces for Hot Springs and MacKenzie Wood had 13 of them.

In the 12 p.m. game Superior and St. Regis had a rematch to determine who would move on to play Hot Springs. It was an exciting match between the two rivals with St. Regis ultimately dominating and winning 3-2. St. Regis won 25-23, 18-25, 25-23, 17-25 and 16-14.

At 2 p.m. Hot Springs took on St. Regis in what would be their first of three games in a row, beating them 3-0. Hot Springs defeated St. Regis 25-11, 25-19 and 25-13. Hot Springs had 26 kills and DePoe had nine of them, she also had two of the team’s three blocks. They had 25 digs and once again DePoe was the leader with nine of them. There were 18 assists collected for the Lady Savage Heat and MacKenzie Wood had 16, there were also 17 aces collected and White had eight of them.

In what ended up being the first of two championship games Hot Springs defeated Charlo 3-0, in a surprising easy victory. The Lady Savage Heat won 26-24, 25-20 and 25-21. The Lady Savage Heat had 27 kills with Abi Retalick and Arnold each getting seven of them. There were five blocks with DePoe and White each getting two. Hot Springs had 56 with MacKenzie Wood had 18, she also had 21 of the team’s 22 assists and six of the team’s 14 aces.

In the final championship game in what would determine the winner of the tournament Hot Springs defeated Charlo in an exciting 3-2 victory. Charlo won the first two games 25-22 and the second 25-19, but the Lady Savage Heat was able to rally for the next three. They took game three 25-21 and then game four 25-22. Game five wasn’t a real contest as Hot Springs was able to easily take it 15-9 winning the 10-C district championship.

In addition to actual volleyball play the All-Conference award winners were also announced during the tournament. Bonnie Franklin won Conference Coach of the year in something that she called “a little embarrassing, but nice.”

First team honors went to: MacKenzie Wood of Hot Springs who was also the highest vote getter, Matea DePoe of Hot Springs, Heather Pruitt of St. Regis, Stephanie Murphy of Charlo, Sami Woodard of Superior, Chandler Wilkinson of Noxon and Stephanie Maughan of Charlo.

Second team honors went to: Randi Arnold of Hot Springs, Jaris Kelley of Charlo, Whitney Wood of Hot Springs, Lindsey Franz of Noxon, Brianna Managhan of St. Regis, and Alex Esteby of Charlo.

Honorable mention honors went to: Jaylen Carpentier of Two Eagle, Alex Conrow of Superior and Jordon Fisher of Hot Springs.