In what was the first meeting of the 2022 volleyball season this past Wednesday between the two rivals located just 14 miles apart along I-90 and Homecoming for one of them to boot. And both teams had enough energy to be factors in a regional, special format tournament that was held most of Saturday in Superior, St. Regis and Alberton.

More importantly, it was an amazing, back and forth, hard-fought (insert more superlatives here) match between two solid teams, St. Regis and home standing Superior.

And it lived up to the billing of a match for which volleyball fans have been waiting, with round one going to the Superior Lady Bobcats 3-1.

Games throughout the four set match were tied multiple times and most saw many lead changes before final whistle blew.

Home team Superior drew first blood in the Wednesday night match, which was part of week-long Homecoming activities for the Lady Bobcats. The Cats pulled away from a 9-9 deadlock in the middle of the first game and steadily built a lead as the set progressed.

In the end, Superior emerged with a 25-16 set win for a 1-0 match advantage.

Set two turned out to be nearly a mirror image of the first set, with the Cats pulling away from the Lady Tigers midway through the second game en route to a 25-19 win and a commanding 2-0 match lead.

Then it was St. Regis’ turn to crank it up and make things interesting and that is what they did in the very pivotal set three. In that game, Superior took and early lead and held onto it until the Lady Tigers caught them for a 21-21 tie. From there St. Regis took a two point lead and countered Superior runs to grab a 25-22 set victory and trim Superior’s match lead to 2-1.

That set up what promised to be a nail-biter of a game four. This time the Lady Tigers pulled ahead after a 1-1 tie and built a lead that at one point was 16-8 in their favor.

But the home team had enough fuel in the tank to erase that lead and produce a 20-20 tie. From there the score was either tied or the lead changed hands eight times.

In the end, Superior managed to hang on for a 25-23 set win and a 3-1 match victory.

Both teams then participated in the Mineral County Invitational tournament, a 12-team, special format affair that ran most of Saturday and was hosted in the early stages by Mineral County’s three high school volleyball schools, with each school hosting a four-team mini-tournament with abbreviated scoring and time limits on all play.

St. Regis was the only school of the three from the host county to advance to the final round, which was played in St. Regis in the afternoon this past Saturday.

The Lady Tigers advanced by coming out of their pool with a number one seed. Valley Christian was second. Also advancing to the tournament final round were: Seeley (first) and Mission (second) from the Alberton pool; Drummond (first) and Granite (second) from round one games held in Superior.

In the end, Seeley played Drummond in the finals, with Seeley earning the tournament championship.