by Scott Sacry
The Western A Divisional volleyball tournament is set to begin in Corvallis on Thursday, November 7 and will go through Saturday. It pits the top four teams from the Southwest against the top four teams from the Northwest.
The top three Southwestern A teams (Frenchtown, Dillon and Hamilton) received a bye into divisionals, while the bottom three teams (Corvallis, Stevensville and Butte Central) had play-in games to determine the Southwest’s #4 seed.
Stevensville took 5th place in the conference and hosted Butte Central, the 6th place team, in the first play-in game on Saturday, Nov. 2 and the Lady ‘Jackets won 3-0.
Corvallis then hosted Stevensville in the second play-in game on Monday, November 4th. The two teams were evenly matches as Stevensville defeated Corvallis in Stevensville and Corvallis defeated Stevensville in Corvallis. So you knew this would be a close game, with Corvallis having the home court advantage.
And it was about as close as you could get.
Stevensville won the first set 25-21, then Corvallis won the second set 26-24. In the third, Stevensville coasted to a 25-19 victory and looked to have the momentum. But Corvallis held strong and won the fourth set 25-23. In the fifth and final set, Corvallis got the upper hand and won 15-12. In a game that could have gone either way, Corvallis won in a five set thriller 21-25, 26-24, 19-25, 25-23, 15-12.
So Corvallis will be the #4 seed in divisionals and plays Whitefish, the #1 seed out of the Northwest, on Thursday, Nov. 7 at noon in the opening round.
Hamilton finished 3rd in the Southwest and received a bye into divisionals. They play the Northwest’s #2 seed Polson on Thursday at 4 p.m. in their opening round divisional game.
Hamilton defeats Corvallis
The volleyball teams of Corvallis and Hamilton squared off in Corvallis on Tuesday, October 29 in the last regular season game for both teams. It was a spirited atmosphere as each school’s student sections traded barbs back and forth. But in the volleyball match, Hamilton had too much firepower and won 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-16).