After losing twice to Three Forks in regular-season play earlier this season, the Jefferson High Panthers overcame the Wolves 25-22 and 25-21 in Boulder Saturday to take second place in the seven-team Panther Smack the Rock Invitational Volleyball Tournament.
Top honors for the tournament went to Joliet, which beat the Wolves 25-20 and 25-19 in morning pool play but lost to the Wolves 25-13 and 25-19 in the afternoon power rounds.
By virtue of finishing first in its morning pool play and defeating Florence and Jefferson in the afternoon, Joliet finished the weekend with an 8-4 winning record to take the championship.
JHS and Three Forks each had a 3-3 record for the afternoon and 6-6 for the day, but the tiebreaker and second place went to Jefferson. After Three Forks in third, Florence was fourth, Choteau fifth by virtue of a tiebreaker over Colstrip, Colstrip sixth and Shelby seventh.
The JHS-hosted tournament was filled with exciting action from some very talented teams, several of which are likely to meet again in post-season play. The heavy competition schedule was a real test of the staying ability of each of the teams.
Over the course of the day, the Panthers bowed to Florence 25-18, 25-16, easily handled Shelby 25- 12 and 25-10, fell again to Florence 25-22, and took another game from Shelby 25-14 for a 3-3 record in morning pool play.
In the afternoon the Panthers defeated the Wolves 25-22, 25-23, split with Florence by winning 25-16 and then losing 25-23, and falling to Joliet 25-18, 25-16. The tournament win over Three Forks was a good sign for the Panthers.
The first time the two teams met this season, Three Forks prevailed in three straight games, 25-21, 25-16 and 25-19. Two weeks later the Panthers came back after losing the first two games 25-21 each to win games three and four 25-19 and 25-21. That pushed the match into a fifth game, which the Wolves took 15-8.
That improving trend and Saturday’s two-game wins over the Wolves should convince the Panthers that they can beat the perennially tough Three Forks team. Saturday’s successes were not the only good results for the Panthers this past week.
Thursday the Panthers hosted Townsend and made quick work of the Bulldogs. Game one saw the Panthers take an early lead and cruise to a big win. A Simonie Mendenhall kill gave the Panthers a 10-4 lead and a pair of aces by Emily McGinnis plus two more kills by Mendenhall set the score at 15-4, Panthers. Aubrey McMaster improved the Panther tally with a kill and Leah Vossler delivered a pair of aces on the way to a 25-5 Panther win.
Game two found McMaster putting on a show at the serving line, where she helped the Panthers get out to a 7-2 lead. Play by Katy Twitchel, Haydin Henschel, McGinnis, Mendenhall and McMaster all figured heavily in the 25-11 Panther win in that second game.
Game three was equally lopsided, with the final score 25-10 for the JHS girls. The three-game to none sweep by the varsity was joined by a 3-0 sweep by the C squad and a 3-1 victory by the JV.
This week the Panthers will welcome Whitehall to town for a Thurs- day match and then host Belgrade on Saturday. Play on Thursday gets underway at 4 p.m., but Saturday is slated to begin at 3 p.m. and only the jayvee and varsity will play, meaning the varsity competition will start somewhat earlier than usual.
