The Charlo Lady Vikings are cruising again this year in Western 14C volleyball circles.

The Lady Vikings appeared to be headed to another unbeaten year as they rolled across the three top contenders, capping their week’s work with a 3-0 match sweep of Hot Springs Saturday evening.

This week Charlo dispatched two of its biggest contenders in the 14C race, sweeping Hot Springs Saturday, after beating Superior 3-1 a few days earlier as regular season play heads toward district and divisional play by the end of the month.

Hot Springs put up a valiant effort Saturday, trying to become one of only a small handful of teams who have taken even one set from the Lady Vikings, but it was not to be.

Charlo ran it’s unblemished record to 9-0 on the year and 9-0 in League play in their Saturday match with Hot Springs.

The first two games were as close as volleyball gets with, Charlo taking the first game 25-23, then coming back for a 26-24 win in set number two. That gave the Vikings a 2-0 match lead and opened the door for the Lady Vikings to complete another sweep in league play.

Payton Smith paced a balanced Charlo attack with six services aces and 21 assists for the Lady Vikings in their match with Hot Springs, while Lauren Aldridge led the Lady Savage Heat with five kills and five blocks.

Thursday it was Superior’s turn to try and slow down the Charlo machine and they did by winning one of four sets in the Lady Vikings 4-1 triumph.

Charlo took the opening set 25-17, then watched as Superior evened the match at one set each with a 25-18 win. And in what turned out to be one of Charlo’s toughest matches of the year, the Lady Bobcats made tight contests of games three and four before falling 25-20 and 25-22 in those games respectively.

Hayleigh Smith led the Lady Viking with 17 assists and three aces against Superior, while Payton Smith chipped in an astonishing 31 assists for Charlo. The Lady Vikings also got eight kills and 15 digs from Leah Cahoon, along with 14 kills and a pair of blocks from Aida Cote.

Superior was led by Payton Milender’s two aces, eight kills, four blocks and 26 digs, while teammate Trinity Donaldson added 26 digs to the Bobcats effort.

The Lady Bobcats opened the week with a 3-0 sweep of Alberton, winning 25-14, 25-13 and 25-8 in straight sets.

All three Superior matches were held in Superior.

Superior is back in action this Tuesday with home games against Hot Springs (Oct 11) and Seeley (Oct 13).