Playoff action begins this week
The Montana high school Fall sports playoffs are about to begin.
For Sanders and Mineral County schools, the first post-season action takes place tonight (October 29) in Plains and St. Ignatius.
The Plains Trotters volleyball team hosts Troy in a Western District 7B play-in game at 6 pm in the Plains gym. The winner of the match advances to the district semi-final round versus Thompson Falls at 1:45 pm, in Thompson Falls.
In St. Ignatius, the Mission Bulldog volleyballers have a home game, also 6 pm tonight (October 29), against Superior. The winner of that match advances to the semis in T Falls for a match with top-seeded, unbeaten Eureka at 2 pm on Saturday.
District 13C volleyball tournament action, is set to begin this Thursday at the Skagit College Events Center in Pablo, after a series of play-in games which will be held this Wednesday (October 30).
St. Regis faces Hot Springs in the second match Wednesday at 2:30 pm. The other Sanders/Mineral Class C team in the tournament play-in game bracket is Noxon, which plays Victor Wednesday at 5:30 pm. Depending on the seeding of the teams in the play-in games, winners will advance to Thursday games versus 1-4 seeds (Granite #1, Drummond #2, Charlo #3 and Valley Christian #4). Thursday games begin Thursday at 9 am with Granite facing the lowest seed from the play-in games. Drummond plays the next lowest seed at Noon, Charlo takes on the next lowest seed at 1:30 pm, and Valley Christian will face the highest remaining play-in round team at 10:30 am.
All games will be at the SKC Event Center in Pablo.
In football action, three Sanders/Mineral teams advanced to the post season.
Thompson Falls’ win this past Friday over Whitehall allowed them to advance to the first round of the Class B-11 (player) post-season tournament as the fourth seed from the West. The 3-6 Blue Hawks will travel to Malta for a game this Friday at 1 pm versus the unbeaten Mustangs, 9-0, the number one seed from the North. The two teams have no common opponents from this season.
In the opening round of the B-8 playoffs, St. Regis advanced as the West’s fourth seed with their win this past weekend over Troy. The 6-2 Tigers travel north to take on Belt, 9-0, and the number one seed from the North in a game set for this Saturday at 2 pm. St. Regis is the number four seed from the West. The two teams had no common opponents during the year.
And in the 6-player post-season tournament opening round, Hot Springs, which clinched the West number two seed with its win this past Friday night over Noxon, will also be on the road, traveling to Hysham for a game against Custer-Hysham-Melstone, which finished the regular season with a 6-3 overall mark, the same as Hot Springs.
Hot Springs and Custer-Hysham had one common opponent this season, with both schools picking up wins over West Yellowstone. Custer beat West Yellowstone 56-30, while Hot Springs beat the Wolverines 59-0.