Area volleyball fans and pundits alike would not put up much of an argument that two of the top high school teams in this neck of the woods are the Charlo Lady Vikings and the Thompson Falls Lady Hawks.

So it would be no surprise that the Lady Hawks’ 3-0 match win Thursday evening over the host Lady Vikings would be a hit with net fans here.

Indeed, the final score may have seemed as if Thompson Falls was dominant and it would be also hard to contest that thought.

Few of those among the nearly full gym in Charlo, however, would likely be looking for a ticket refund as they filed out of the gym at the end of what was a hard-fought, fast-paced Montana high school volleyball contest.

In fact, a glimpse of things to come may have emerged prior to the start of the varsity game. The schools’ two junior varsity teams battled back and forth for the entirety of a five-set match, with Thompson Falls ekeing out a 3-2 win that saw the junior Lady Hawks erase a 2-0 Charlo lead, then come back and win the next three 15-point game match deciders.

Clearly, there is talent aplenty among both teams. In the end, depth of the talent and experience in general may have provided the winning edge to the visitors from Thompson Falls.

The varsity Lady Hawks pulled away from a see-saw, lead-changing first set to finally build an insurmountable 22-16 lead in the opening set on their way to a 25-16 win and a 1-0 match lead.

In that opening set, both teams participated in long, seemingly impossible to save volleys before T Falls’ was able to pull away for the win.

And they took the momentum from holding off numerous Charlo charges in the opening set to once again break away from early ties and explode to a lead that mid-set had reached double figures, with junior Avery Burgess leading the eruption by hitting multiple lazer-like serves that Charlo could not dig and return.

The Lady Hawks won set two 25-9 and seemed likely to make short work of the host team, spoiling their homecoming activities along the way.

However, Charlo was far from finished and in set three they were the team that built an early lead, fought off several ties and built a narrow 19-18 lead. Once again, the Thompson Falls servers were on target, finding open hardwood on all sides of the Charlo court.

The third set was tied at 22-22 before the Thompson Falls serves took their toll, aided by a long serve out of bounds on Charlo.

A final Burgess stuff at the net sealed the Lady Hawks’ 25-22 third set win and wrapped up what was a fan-pleasing battle between the two traditional volleyball heavyweights.

Thompson Falls, which played Eureka in a Covid make-up game Saturday night, faces always-tough Arlee tonight (Tuesday) on the Lady Hawks home court, then travel to Mission for a Thursday night conference match-up.