For a few years now, volleyball fans in St. Regis have been waiting for the crops to be ready for a good harvest.

Thursday night’s 3-1 set victory over conference foe Hot Springs may well be an indication the rewards of patience are about to be reaped.

The current group of Lady Tigers seniors are showing signs they are ripe and ready for an exciting run in Class C Montana volleyball play.

And they are getting promising support from a solid group of young sprouts as they head into the bread basket of the 2021 season.

Prior to the start of the current campaign, head coach Jennifer Pruitt said a focus for the year would be finishing matches and not letting early leads slip away.

Thursday night the energetic Tigers showed they have heard that admonishment, and put it to work against the thin-roster Hot Springs Lady Savage Heat.

With seven players contributing to what became a solid team statistical effort, St. Regis jumped out to a quick 1-0 match lead by opening an early lead in the opening set, then building on it the rest of the way to claim a 25-12 set victory.

Set number two saw the Lady Savage Heat, who most often field a team of only six or seven players as was the case Thursday, battle back behind the play of senior Lily Winn and promising freshman Brooke Jackson.

St. Regis won the second set 25-23, but not before Hot Springs showed they are a gritty, determined group. At that point St. Regis had a 2-0 match lead and appeared to be in control.

In fact, the revived Lady Savage Heat effort carried over into set number three where they pulled out a hard-fought 25-19 set win on the Tigers’ home court and pulled to within a 2-1 match deficit.

This was an issue point Pruitt which caused coach Pruitt some preseason concern. In the previous year, the Lady Tigers would be in a similar position, only to see their opponents dig deep and rally to win the match.

However, despite a determined effort by the Lady Heat, St. Regis was able to hold on for another 25-23 set four win and lock up the match victory.

The win boosted St. Regis to 3-2 overall on the year, while Hot Springs slipped to 0-2 in the early going of the volleyball season during which Covid and injury have already trimmed their ability to field a full squad.

Seniors continued to lead the way for the hometown victors, with Bailey Pruitt picking up four service aces, three kills, 15 assists and eight digs on the night. She was joined by Taylor Hurd who had a pair of aces and 15 digs, and Macy Hill who had four aces, five kills, two assists, three blocks and two digs.

Senior Karmen Alexander also had a solid night, recording two aces, three kills, two assists, two blocks and two digs.

Hot Springs was paced by Winn, the outstanding senior who is the anchor of the Lady Savage Heat team. Winn had three aces, a match-high eight kills, four blocks and four digs to lead the Savage Heat effort. Jackson chipped in with six kills and 11 assists for Hot Springs.

Both teams were scheduled to play in the Arlee Spike It tournament Saturday.

After that, Hot Springs is scheduled to host Charlo Sept. 25, while St. Regis has a slightly busier week ahead.

The Lady Tigers traveled to I-90 rival Superior this Tuesday, then hit the road again Thursday for a game in Lincoln.