Flathead and Glacier dropped their opening round matches at the Class AA state volleyball tournament in Bozeman yesterday. Early in the day, Flathead lost to Billings Senior (25-10, 25-19, 25-10). Billings Senior had a 27-0 regular season record this year and has won the past three state championships. Senior advanced to play Missoula Sentinel, won that match and then moved on to play Billings West in the state semifinals today. Flathead plays Great Falls today in a loser-out match.
Meanwhile, Glacier fell to West in the evening yesterday (25-19, 25-19, 23-25, 25-16). West advanced to play Helena High, won that match and faces Senior today. Glacier plays in a loser-out match against C.M. Russell today.
In the Class A tournament, Libby won two matches to advance to the semifinals against defending champion Lewistown tonight. Libby opened up the tourney by beating Belgrade (21-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-22, 15-11). The Lady Loggers then faced Billings Central at 8 p.m. last night and won that match (25-22, 19-25, 25-23, 19-25, 17-15).
Libby doesn’t play Lewistown until 6 p.m. tonight, giving the girls much-needed rest after two long matches yesterday that both went down to the wire. Polson lost its match to Lewistown (25-16, 25-17, 25-19) and plays Miles City today.
Today’s matches look like this:
Class AA:Western No. 4 Flathead vs. Eastern No. 3 Great Falls at 10 a.m. (loser-out)
Western No. 3 Glacier vs. Eastern No. 4 C.M. Russell at 12 p.m. (loser-out)
Eastern No. 1 Billings Senior vs. Eastern No. 2 Billings West at 6 p.m. (semifinals)Class A:
Northwestern No. 2 Polson vs. Eastern No. 1 Miles City at 10 a.m. (loser-out)
Southwestern No. 1 Anaconda vs. Central No. 2 Belgrade at 12 p.m. (loser-out)
Northwestern No. 1 Libby vs. Central No. 1 Lewistown at 6 p.m. (semifinals)