George Ferguson Havre Daily News sports editor gferguson@havredailynews.com
It’s MTA week around the state of Montana and that means that high school volleyball is set to take its annual break. Then teams will return to the floor to gear up for postseason play. This past weekend saw Big Sandy, North Star and Chinook continue to play well in the District 6C East, while the top-rated Chester/J-I Hawks steam rolled their way to a pair of conference wins in the 6C West. On Thursday in Chinook, the Sugarbeeters, the two-time defending district champions, got their weekend off to a good start with a three-game sweep of struggling Rocky Boy. Chinook defeated the Morning Stars by scores of 25-22, 25-9 and 25-2, and the Beeters got 10 kills from senior Kayla Dugan in the process. Patti Hellman also had eight service aces. Meanwhile, the Big Sandy Pioneers stepped out of conference on Thursday and picked up their second win of the season against Class B Fort Benton. The Pioneers went on the road and beat the Longhorns by scores of 25-21, 29-27, 20-25 and 25-22. Shersteen Cline, who has had a monstrous senior campaign for Big Sandy, racked up a match-high 17 kills and two blocks in the win. Josi Herron had nine assists and Carissa Brown had 14 digs for the Pioneers. The Pioneers continued to roll on Friday night as they went to Box Elder and swept the host Bears by scores of 25-17, 25-20 and 25-19. Kourtney Danreuther had five kills for Big Sandy, while Herron added a pair of assists and two service aces in the win. Box Elder got four kills and two blocks from Rokki Parker in the loss. Chinook also continued its hot play on Friday night, easily defeating Hays- Lodge Pole 25-16, 25-9 and 25-16 in Hays, and North Star, the league’s toprated team, took care of Rocky Boy 25-13, 25-10 and 25-9 in Gildford. The Knights, who are trying to win their first district title in five years, got 10 kills and one block from Britnee Dyrland, and Mariana Jochim added 13 assists and five digs. On Saturday night, the Knights took to the road and went to Box Elder, and the result was the same. North Star cruised to a three-game sweep of the Bears by scores of 25-14, 25-19 and 25-10. Natasha Dyrland led the way offensively for the Knights with a match-high 13 kills, while Jochim had 18 assists and a seasonhigh 10 service aces. Box Elder got five kills from Rokki Parker, as well as four blocks each from Parker and Arielle Wolfchief. Meanwhile, in Valier on Saturday, the Chester/J-I Hawks were pushed somewhat, but they held on to the top spot in the 6C West standings by earning a pair of road wins. The Hawks started the day by beating a tough Valier team by scores of 25-23, 21-25, 25-15 and 25-22. Sophomore Jessica VanDyke had a huge match for the Hawks, totaling 18 kills, 18 digs and one block, while Molly Brown added 21 assists and five aces. The Hawks also thumped Heart Butte later in the day by scores of 25-12, 25-15 and 25-8. Lindsay Oraw had a solid all-around match for C/J-I with seven aces and two digs, while Tabitha Brown added seven aces as well. North Star also got this week off to a good start with a three-game sweep of Chinook on Monday night in Gildford. The Knights downed the Beeters by scores of 26-24, 25-15 and 25-23. Box Elder also beat HLP on Monday night n three games.
