ST. IGNATIUS - As if there needed to be any more importance put into the Mission-Ronan volleyball rivalry, the two teams now compete in the same district.

"I think that it makes it more real than before," Mission head coach Kendal Anderson said. "We've always had the Lake County rivalry but now that it is a conference game getting that win makes it even better."

The Lady Bulldogs got the best of the Maidens in the first entry of the new district rivalry, winning 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-13) last Thursday behind a balanced attack of six kills apiece by junior Sara Nerby and senior Jenn Larson.

"When Sara gets a hold of the ball she can be deadly," Anderson said. "Jenn Larsson is my most consistent hitter and can make a play off of any set she gets."

They had to overcome the Maidens at the net, as Ronan collected four blocks including three from Bethany Colman. The Lady Bulldogs outhit Ronan 24-8 in the matchup and picked up their first conference victory of the season.

The Maidens got some great defense from Courtney Clairmont, who collected 14 digs.

"I think the match over Ronan was a good confidence booster, especially with it being our first conference game," Anderson said. "Our offense is really starting to come together. Now it's the defense that we need to work on in order to out play all of our opponents."

Deer Lodge 3, Mission 2

On Friday, Mission fell to district rival Deer Lodge in five sets (25-23, 18-25, 21-25, 25-23, 15-13) in a hard fought game.

"We weren't mentally ready for the Deer Lodge game," Anderson said. "We made a lot of mental mistakes and dug ourselves into a hole every game that we had to work to get out of. We need to work on coming out strong from the beginning and staying that strong the whole time."

The attack for the Lady Bulldogs was balanced. Nerby led the team in kills with 13 and Larsson added another 11.

Junior Loren Erickson had nine kills and senior Ashley Courville notched six.

"We underestimated Deerlodge," Anderson said. "We played them in the opening tournament and thought that we would be able to come away with an easy win. We need to step up our defensive efforts on order to make out team strong as a whole."

Erickson and junior Stephanie Lewandowski both had 14 digs but communication breakdowns hurt Mission down the stretch. The Lady Bulldogs will jump into another rivalry this Thursday with a matchup against former district foe Bigfork at home and then more in-conference play against Loyola on Friday.

"Defense and communication is going to be the key to being successful for the rest of the season," Anderson said.

Plains 3, Ronan 1

The Ronan Maidens filled the stat sheet with four sets of tough volleyball, but were defeated by Plains High School 25-17, 25-23, 16-25, 25-18 in action Saturday, Sept. 17.

Ronan recorded more digs, kills and blocks than the visiting Trotters, but couldn't come up with the win. Courtney Clairmont's 22 digs were five more than the entire Plains team put on the board, while Darian Blixt-Leo contributed seven kills and Alaina Madsen recorded a pair of blocks.

Payge DeLaurenti led all players with four aces and Lindsay Clairmont notched a dozen assists for the Maidens. Ronan heads on the road this week for a Hwy. 93 meeting with the Arlee Scarlets at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday before going to Bigfork on Tuesday for a 4 p.m. rematch from their Sept. 3 straight-sets loss to the Valkyries.