Charlo knocked out of divisional tournament with two losses

BUTTE - After sweeping through the district tournament with a vengeance, the Charlo Lady Vikings had their season come to an end with losses to Twin Bridges and Phillipsburg in the divisional tournament last weekend.

"I can't really be disappointed," head coach Sheryl Kain said. "They really did work hard."

Charlo won their opening match again Twin Bridges on Thursday, 25-22, but lost the next three 25-20, 25-23 and 25-16.

"It was the third game that we really should have had," Kain said.

Offensively, junior Dawn Blevins had 14 assists in the match while junior Deondra Brown had eight kills. As a team, the Lady Vikings had 38 kills. Charlo did show defensive prowess with 63 team digs to Twin Bridges' 40.

Junior Kinley Pope led the team with 18 digs while Blevins had 12. The team also had 18 blocks, Blevins leading with 7, Brown next with five and senior Royelle Esterby collecting 4.

On Friday, Charlo again won their first match against Phillipsburg 25-15, but lost the second 15-15, won the third 25-16 before falling in the last two 25-13, 15-13.

Sophomore Rachel Hoyt had 11 kills while Pope had 10. As a team the Lady Vikings had 31 kills and 81 digs. Pope led with 27 digs, while Blevins and junior Jazmine Hernandez-Kelley added 14 and 12 respectively. The Lady Vikings continued their great play at the net with 16 blocks, Blevins had seven of those and Hoyt had five.

Charlo ended a season that saw them win a share of the regular season 10-C district championship and the tournament championship. They showed significant improvement from when they first started the season.

"From the beginning I knew we had a lot of good individuals but by the end of the season we had a good team," Kain said.

The Lady Vikings had three girls on their roster that had seen significant playing time the year before, but the team was able to grow and figure out how to work together.

"They've learned how to gel together," Kain said. "Each of them had their part of the game to bring."

Kain said that next season she'd like to play more teams during the regular season from the 9-C and 10-C districts.

"You can't get better unless you play the better teams," she said.

Charlo should be one of the better teams next year and they'll have key start-ers returning.

"I pretty much have my core team coming back," Kain said.