Flathead High School may have taken the first two crosstown matches of the year but the Glacier Wolfpack will get another crack at their Kalispell rivals, this time with the fate of both teams’ season on the line.
Glacier (10-17, 4-8 Western AA) downed Missoula Big Sky 25-19, 27-25, 25-15 Tuesday night to set up a state tournament play-in match at Flathead on Thursday at 6 p.m. The winner will advance to next weekend’s Class AA tourney in Bozeman.
Tuesday’s sweep of the Eagles was the first postseason test for the Wolfpack, seeded sixth out of the Western AA conference. Senior Kali Gulick led the way in that victory, putting down 15 kills, while Aubrie Rademacher had three of her team’s nine total blocks.
Flathead (18-11, 9-3) earned the third seed on the strength of a strong regular season that included a win over then top-ranked Helena on Oct. 13. The Bravettes have spent most of the year ranked in the top five in the state, but both of their regular season wins against Glacier were razor close. Flathead needed five sets to beat the Wolfpack at home on Sept. 13 and bounced back from dropping the first set to win in four at Glacier on Oct. 4.
Glacier has reached the state tournament each of the last two seasons, including a program-best third-place finish in 2016. Flathead, meanwhile, has missed the state tourney the last two years, last advancing to Bozeman in 2015.