It was a good week and a good test for the Thompson Falls volleyball team, which will host the Western 7B district playoff tournament this Saturday.

It was good in that they swept Troy 3-0 on the road Thursday night, running their 7B conference record to 7-2. The good test came two days later when they hosted unbeaten Eureka, the conference leader, and took the Lady Lions to the limit before losing 3-2. 

When coupled with a Friday Plains loss to Eureka, the outcome of the Lady Hawks week was a second seeding in this weekend’s District tournament. 

As a tune-up prior to their showdown with Eureka, T Falls was in control from start to finish during their 3-0 sweep of Troy, which is 0-11 in conference play this season. 

T Falls took the opening set, 25-15, then captured set number two 25-14 to take a commanding 2-0 match lead.  They sewed up the sweep with a 25-12 third set win. 

Six different Lady Hawks players led or tied for the team lead in the five statistical categories, led by Oliva Fitchett’s 21 assists.  Addy Deal shared the team lead in kill shots with Addi Pardee (nine each). 

Deal was also the team leader in blocked shots with three.  

Sarah Koskela had three digs to top the Lady Hawks, while Gabi Hannum led in service aces with 13. 

Then came the meeting Saturday afternoon with Eureka.   

T Falls jumped out to an early match lead with a hard-fought 25-19 first set win.  But the unbeaten Lady Lions shook that off and scored a 25-7 set two win to square the match at one set each. 

The Lady Hawks recovered from that set loss and won the third set by a 25-20 score, giving them the match advantage at 2-1. 

In what was the most exciting set of the match, the two teams traded ties and leads numerous times before Eureka managed to pull away in the fourth set for a 26-24 win, tying the match at 2-2. 

That was a precursor to set five, which in high school volleyball goes to the team which reaches 15 points first and has a two-point margin of victory in the set. 

After another back-and-forth battle, the Lady Lions pulled away from a 12-12 tie and went on to win the fifth set 15-12, giving them a 3-2 match win and securing their number one seed in this weekend’s District tourney. 

Fitchett had an incredible 57 assists to lead the Lady Hawks statistical effort.  She was also the team leader in digs with 12.  Teammate Addy Deal led T Falls with 17 kill shots, two better than Pardee, who collected 13. 

Annalise Fairbank led the team with three blocked shots. The Lady Hawks did not have any service aces versus the Lady Lions. 

It was announced Sunday that Plains will take on T Falls at 1:45 pm this Saturday in the TFHS gym in Thompson Falls. It will be the third match of the year, with each team winning one match. Both of the matches went 3-2 during the season, with the wins coming on their home courts.

Plains comes into the rematch with an 6-3 conference record, while T Falls is 7-3.