The Flathead Bravettes had a feeling they’d be good this season.

But going unbeaten in conference play? That seemed like a pipe dream.

The Flathead volleyball team was coming off a 9-3 regular season where it finished third in Western AA. It had also graduated all-state outside hitter Hannah Sackett, a Division I talent now at the University of West Virginia.

Yet when the dust settled, Flathead finished a perfect 12-0 in conference matches, completing the unbeaten regular season with a straight-sets victory over Missoula Big Sky on Oct. 27.

“I knew we were going to be good, just because our leadership was good and we had really good team chemistry,” senior outside hitter Kwyn Johnson said.

“But I didn’t know if we’d be undefeated like we are now.”

Fellow senior outside hitter Cassie Krueger shared similar thoughts.

“I don’t think any of us knew we were going to be undefeated,” Krueger said. “We knew we were going to be good. We knew our goal was to get to state and make it to the Saturday night game, but going undefeated was icing on the cake.”

The Bravettes opened their season with three straight nonconference wins, but they hit a rough patch at the Great Falls Invitational tournament Sept. 7-8. Flathead went 5-2 in pool play to advance to the championship bracket, where it went 1-2 to finish in fifth place.

“I think Great Falls was a good learning experience,” coach Leon Wilcox said. “I think they came out of there hungry. They came out of there like they wanted to prove that they were better than that.”

Flathead also got bad news on the injury front. Johnson, an all-state hitter the previous year, had to stop swinging due to inflammation in her left shoulder. An MRI revealed nothing was torn so the left-handed Johnson was able to continue playing, but she couldn’t swing away because of the pain.

“The whole team was very upset,” Krueger said of Johnson’s injury. “But she told us she could still play. She could still pass and she could tip, and we were all right with that as long as she was still on the court. We would’ve been OK without her, but we definitely didn’t want to play without her the rest of the season. It would’ve been a huge loss for us.”

Without a full-strength Johnson, Krueger stepped up and helped lead the Bravettes to 12 straight conference wins. She finished the regular season head and shoulders above the rest of Class AA with 197 kills and 4.58 kills per set, outpacing second-place Kaitlyn Oliver of Helena High by 0.6 kills per set.

“It’s amazing my shoulder is still attached,” Krueger joked.

Despite her injury, Johnson was also effective, finishing first in the conference with a .341 attack efficiency, but she said Krueger was the leader of the offense.

“She did so great,” Johnson said of Krueger. “She became the only go-to hitter, and she can only be in the front row for three rotations, so while she was in the front row she had to get it done, and I think she did great. She really stepped up.”

The Bravettes dropped just two sets through their first seven conference matches, but received a battle from crosstown-rival Glacier when the two Kalispell schools met on Oct. 4. Glacier won the first two sets 26-24 and 25-23, but Flathead stormed back to win in five sets and preserve its unbeaten conference record.

Setter Emily Russell nicknamed the Bravettes “the comeback kids” after the victory, and Flathead lived up to that moniker two weeks later when it came back from a two-set deficit to beat Helena Capital. The Bravettes trailed 13-9 in the fifth set before winning six straight points to seal the victory.

“That just shows how we don’t give up,” Johnson said. “We had such big goals for the season and Capital being our second to last game, if we lost that game our undefeated record would’ve been ruined.”

That resiliency will be tested again when Flathead heads to Bozeman for the Class AA state tournament Thursday through Saturday. While the Bravettes may not be as physically gifted as

Billings Senior, the top seed from Eastern AA, Wilcox said his team thrives when facing adversity.

“They don’t give up,” he said. “We have been down many times during the season, whether it’s been down games or down in a set, and we have managed to come back every time and win. You just can’t count them out because they don’t quit.”

The regular season ended Oct. 27, giving the Bravettes 12 days off prior to the state tournament. Other teams played play-in matches the week after the end of the regular season, but Flathead received an automatic tournament berth by locking up the top seed in the Western division.

To keep the intensity level at practice high, the Bravettes have been scrimmaging against the coaching staff and bench players, and Wilcox doesn’t expect the layoff to have a negative impact.

“At this point with the skills and stuff, they’ve got what they’ve got,” he said. “So what we’re trying to do is keep them mentally sharp. We’re trying to keep that intensity level and focus.”

The time off should be a good thing for Johnson’s ailing shoulder. While she still isn’t 100 percent, Johnson said she’s ready for state, and Wilcox expects her to be a threat.

“Kwyn has been holding back to save everything for state, so she’ll bring it,” Wilcox said.

Krueger said the Bravettes are eager to follow up their stellar regular season with a deep postseason run.

“No matter who is on the other side of the court, we know that we just have to take care of ourselves,” she said. “No matter what happens, no matter what the fans are like, no matter how much pressure is on us, let’s just fight and get to that state championship game.”