Now that Polson’s football, girls golf and girls cross country teams have secured Northwestern A divisional crowns, the volleyball team is zeroing in on a conference title of its own.
Polson’s girls narrowly beat Columbia Falls on Oct. 15 to claim the Northwestern A divisional cross country championship. The Lady Pirates were paced by the meet’s three top finishers: first-place Claudia Hewston, 19:28; Aja Starkey, 20:15; and Tegan Bauer, 20:24. The boys came in second behind Whitefish.
A day earlier on the football field, Polson blew past Libby 46-7 to clinch the conference title with one regular season game remaining. The Pirates, undefeated at 7-0 overall and 4-0 in league games, wrap up the season on the road against Browning on Oct. 21. The Class A playoffs begin the following weekend.
Polson’s girls golf team won the school’s first league championship of the fall, winning the divisional tournament in late September.
In volleyball, Polson is ranked first in the conference with four regular season matches left. Divisionals are held in Whitefish Nov. 4-5, followed by the Class A state tournament on Nov. 10-12. The Pirates face Dillon on the road on Oct. 20.
Polson’s record of 7-2 overall and 5-1 in the conference edges out Whitefish for the conference’s top spot. The Bulldogs are 4-5 overall and 4-2 in league games. Rounding out the Northwestern A standings are Libby at 4-6 (3-3), Frenchtown at 2-7 (2-3) and Columbia Falls at 1-9 (1-6).
Over the weekend, all five Northwestern A teams played in the Missoula Invitational tournament held at Missoula Hellgate and Missoula Sentinel. The teams were the only representatives from Class A. The rest were Class AA.
After pool play on Oct. 14, Polson was the only Class A team to advance to the following day’s championship bracket, joining seven AA teams. Polson lost to Great Falls in the opening round. Helena High beat Glacier in the championship match. It was the third straight year Glacier finished second at the tourney.
Polson leads Northwestern A in several major team categories, including assists, digs and kills. The Pirates average 11 kills per game and a 25.2 hitting percentage, compared to second-place Frenchtown at 8.7 kills per game and a 17.5 hitting percentage.
Guiding the Pirates up front are the three top-ranked individual hitters in the conference, in terms of hitting percentage, a figure calculated by factoring in kills, errors and total attempts. Seniors Riley Kenney and Kenzie Clay lead the league in hitting percentage, followed by junior teammate Heidi Rausch.
The Pirates average 9.4 assists per game. The conference’s other teams all average around 6.5, except for Frenchtown at 7.4.
Junior Shalaina Duford leads the league by a large margin with 339 assists total, which averages out to 8.9 per game. Frenchtown sophomore Josie Anderson has 218 assists, or 6.6 per game.
Libby leads the league in aces while Whitefish is the team leader in blocks. Selinna Maefau, a senior hitter for Libby, ranks first in the conference in both aces per game at 1.1 and percentage at 92.4. She has 43 aces compared to 12 errors on the season.
Whitefish junior hitter Baylee Tveidt has a conference-best 24 solo blocks on the season and 33 total.