In the end, after eight grueling hours of volleyball in one day, one team walked away with the No. 1 seed in this coming week’s Divisional tournament at Manhattan Christian High School in Churchill, MT, just outside of Manhattan.

The victors hailed from District 14C regular season champion Charlo and finished as the top team out of the district following this past week’s tournament in Hot Springs.

The host team from Hot Springs, which played four straight games Friday beginning with a noon-ish match versus Charlo, took home the second place trophy and with it a No. 2 seed in the upcoming Western C Divisional.

Over the course of the afternoon/evening those two teams met three times, with Hot Springs, the number three seed coming into the District competition, over-powering the perennial powerhouse Lady Vikings 3-1 to force the last match of the day, which began around 6 p.m. Friday evening.

By the time the final whistle blew, there were some tired but happy young ladies congratulating each other and accepting congratulations from others over the legendary display of volleyball in which they had just taken part.

After splitting the first two games of the championship series tied at one match each, the experienced and somewhat fresher legs of the Charlo group (three games on the day) allowed them to sweep Hot Springs 3-0 and claim the 14C title.

The marathon began with a consolation round match between Noxon, which played last night (Monday) against Valley Christian, in Alberton, for the right to claim a number three seed representing both the 14C and 13C divisions. That game took place after the current press deadline.

Noxon won the Friday morning encounter with St. Regis, sending the Lady Tigers home and setting up a rematch with Hot Springs, which had knocked the Lady Devils out of the championship round Thursday afternoon.

But they fell to Hot Springs in the rematch, leaving them with the third see from 14C. The Lady Savage Heat advanced to the next level and a meeting with Charlo for the right to advance to the championship final.

Charlo won that game, 3-0, dropping Hot Springs into the consolation bracket with Noxon. The Savage Heat made it two in a row against Noxon, whom they had swept on Thursday, the tourney’s opening day. This time Hot Springs carved out a 3-1 match victory, which propelled them back into a 3:30 match with Charlo, which at that point had not lost a match in the two-day tourney.

Charlo took that match 3-0, forcing a rubber match of sorts with Hot Springs for the right to be the number one seed.

In their second meeting of the day, the two waged a crowd-pleasing series of long vollies and amazing saves by both teams. Charlo took a 1-0 set lead via a 25-14 first set win.

Then, things got interesting. Hot Springs roared back, grabbing an early lead and holding on to square the match at one set each with a hard-fought 25-20 victory.

And as the somewhat stunned capacity crowd looked on, the intensity level of the contest grew with each point after Charlo had jumped out to a 20-9 lead. Hot Springs outscored Charlo by more than a dozen points, tying the match at 23-each. The Savage Heat took their first lead of the set at 25-24 after being tied once again at 24.

The host team secured a 2-1 match lead with a 26-24 win over the stunned Charlo fans and to the delight of Hot Springs fans who had not seen the Heat beat the Vikings in several years.

The fourth set featured multiple ties and lead changes before, with Hot Springs holding a slim 22-21 lead, sophomore Kara Christensen slammed a kill shot past the Viking defenders, building a lead in the set on their way to the match victory, 3-1. The crowd and the Savage Heat players erupted in joyous celebration.

Then, after a 30-minute “rest”delay, the two teams played a third time, with the winner of the match securing the District 14C number one seed.

It was at that point that exhaustion began rearing its ugly head on both sides, but more on the faces of Hot Springs players who played one more game than Charlo.

The Vikings took control early and didn’t look back, recording a sweep with 25-6, 25-11 and 25-13 set victories.

Hot Springs volleyball coach Taylor Salmi was pleased with her team's efforts and improved play over the course of the season.

"They are an incredible team to coach and a wonderful group of girls. They have improved so much over the season and are really peaking at the right time," Salmi said. "Highlight was winning the first Championship game, unfortunately we ran out of gas in the second Championship, but words cannot express how proud I am of each of them. It was a real team effort."

As the number one seed from District 14C, Charlo will face Philipsburg, while Hot Springs will take on Twin Bridges, which lost in the 12C title game to state favorite Manhattan Chrisitian.  That tournament begins Thursday (Nov 2) morning.and runs through Saturday.

The 13 and 14 C districts are set to merge into one larger district next year.

St. Regis was technically fourth place at the District tournament, recording a first day win over Alberton before losing to Charlo the following day. The Lady Tigers were then bounced from the tournament with a loss early Friday morning to Noxon.

Alberton and Two Eagle River both finished the tourney 0-2 and were eliminated by the end of the first day.

    Charlo's Aida Cote, (#2, white jersey) goes up to block a shot by Hot Springs' sophomore Kara Christensen during their District 14C championship game Friday night in Hot Springs. (Chuck Bandel/VP-MI)
  

    St. Regis volleyball coach Kianna Barnett goes over strategy with her Lady Tigers team during a time out at the District 14C championship in Hot Springs last week. (Chuck Bandel/VP-MI)
  

    Hot Springs senior Lauren Aldridge (7) battles it out with Charlo sophomore Leah Cahoon during their championship match at the District 14C volleyball tournament in Hot Springs last Friday. (Chuck Bandel/VP-MI)