It was a close battle, but then again, would you expect anything else from a Cat-Dog matchup.

The Northwest A Conference-leading Whitefish held on to its first-place standing with a five-set 25-16, 18-25, 25-23, 26-28, 15-6 victory on Tuesday, Oct. 29.

“It's still a bit surreal as we are still focused on the task at hand, which is getting to state and winning state,” Whitefish Head Coach Addy Connelly said. “The players’ goal was to start on top, stay on top and end on top. We aren't quite there yet, so we are doing business as usual.”

Mylie Ridgeway led the way for the Lady Bulldogs with 19 kills, while her teammate Isabella Hartwig with 17 kills.

The Wildkats weren’t far behind in offense, as Rylee Sweeney notched 12 kills and seven blocks at the net. Meanwhile, on the backline, Emalee Alton had 20 digs along with nine kills on offense.

As a team, Whitefish had 58 kills to Columbia Falls’ 44. At the service stripe, Alton had three of Columbia Falls’ five aces, while Allie Shors had three of Whitefish’s six aces.

“It's always a good night to take a win from Columbia Falls and, better yet, to sweep them,” Connelly said. “It is always an emotion-fueled game from both sides as well as fans and then to put senior night on top of it created a lot of adversity. Our younger players stepped up and our seniors played steady. Myli Ridgeway stood out in consistency all night long. She leads our team in kills and digs. Finishing on a high note with competition is always a great way to move into your next games.”

The net was where Columbia Falls’ shined, posting 12 blocks. Isabella Hartwig had four of Whitefish’s five blocks. Jazine Brooks dished out 22 assists for the Wildkats, while Shors had 28 of Whitefish’s 56 assists.

Whitefish finished the regular season 11-3 and 10-2 in the conference, edging out Polson for first due to tiebreakers. Columbia Falls is 7-6 overall and 6-5 in conference play.

“Having a first-place seed is great going into divisionals but we need to keep focused and expect everyone to be playing their best while we play our best,” Connelly said. “If we do our jobs and focus on what we can do then we will continue our path.”

    Seniors Maggie Mercer, Yoli Krastev, Myli Ridgeway, Kaydence Blackwell, Izzy Hartwig. (Holly T. Pierce/Cherry Creek Image)