Hot Springs volleyball falls to Charlo

If there were trophies for guts and effort, the Hot Springs Lady Savage Heat volleyball team would have to be under consideration.

The Lady Savage Heat’s season, including Saturday night’s 3-0 loss to nearby Charlo, will go down as all guts and little glory.

Since beginning the 2021 Montana Class C volleyball season with just seven roster players the Heat have never quit, never complained and kept plugging away for that elusive first victory.

Unfortunately, volleyball is a sports that requires a minimum of six players and a healthy set of reserves is a good idea given the physical demands and intensity of the sport played in gyms across Montana and the country.

In their match with the taller and more importantly deeper rostered Lady Vikings, Hot Springs played hard but could not keep up with the always tough Charlo squad.

Just a week ago the Lady Savage Heat were forced to cancel a game when their razor-thin roster lost one player to a leg injury and saw another quarantined under Co-vid care rules.

Against Charlo things went wrong from the start despite a gritty and determined effort from Hot Springs.

Charlo jumped to a quick lead and never looked back as they used dominating play at the net to secure a 25-11 first set victory, good for a 1-0 match lead.

Once again the Lady Savage Heat reached deep into their reserves, in this case individual energy and not extra players, and kept things close in the early and middle portions of the second set.

But the Lady Vikings were able to fend off the Hot Springs charge and record a fairly comfortable 25-19 second set win for a commanding 2-0 match lead.

The third set was almost identical in nature to the second set, with the same results, a 25-18 Charlo win and a 3-0 set sweep.

Despite the lopsided match score, the Lady Heat got several solid performances from among those on the court. Senior Lily Winn led the way for Hot Springs, getting two service aces, four kills, seven assists, five blocks and six digs for the match.

Also having good statistics for Hot Springs were Brooke Jackson, one ace, three kills, five assists and seven digs, and Jose Uski who racked up two aces, one kill shot and three digs.

The loss kept Hot Springs winless for the year heading into the second half of the season. They are next scheduled to play at Superior this Thursday night.