When push came to shove, the Lady Hawks finally pushed their way past the stubborn Mission Bulldogs, winning a five-set thriller, a marathon of a volleyball match in Thompson Falls Tuesday.

With neither team seeming able to take full control of the net proceedings, the Hawks battled back from a 2-1 set deficit to win the District 7B conference match 24-26, 25-18, 23-25, 26-24, 15-11 on the annual Pink Night of play at TFHS.

Falling behind fast in the fifth set, the Hawks turned to freshman Audrey Fairbank, who stepped up to the line with the Hawks trailing 10-5. Serving very well when it counted most, Fairbank served up eight straight winning points to put the Hawks ahead 13-10. Audrey’s older sister Annalise Fairbank and Addy Deal crushed kills during that pivotal run, and Emma Claridge added a block.

After the Hawks got the serve back after giving it up for a point, Thompson Falls closed out the match with kills from Deal (off an assist from Claridge) and Gabi Hannum (off an assist from Deal) on match point.

“We are playing good volleyball right now,” coach Sandra Kazmierczak said, “like we are still improving. And that’s good heading into the final stretch of the season.”

In their other action last week, the Hawks went to Deer Lodge and knocked off the homestanding Wardens 25-19, 22-25, 25-21, 25-22.

Kazmierczak said another stretch of fine serving, this time by Hannum may have been the highlight of that match for the Hawks. With the Hawks trailing 21-14, Hannum served up 11 straight winning points to close out that set, and the Hawks went on to win the match in the fourth set

Hannum finished the deer Lodge match with 21 kills, three stuff blocks, three aces, 13 digs and 14 set assists, Deal added 12 kills, two blocks, three aces, eight digs and 17 assists, Addi Pardee six kills, 10 digs and two aces, Annalise Fairbank three Ks and 16 digs, Claridge two blocks and six digs, Audrey Fairbank with five digs and Cora Anderson a stuff block.

In the exciting five-set win over Mission, Hannum was again good for 21 big kills, in addition to blocking a shot, hitting three aces and hitting 13 set assists, Deal passed out a team-high 18 assists, hit 10 kills, blocked four shots and smoked four aces, Pardee clubbed nine kills, Annalise Fairbank hit two kills, blocked two Mission kill attempts and served up two aces, Claridge added five kills, a block and an assist, Anderson a kill and a block, and Audrey Fairbank a service ace.

The Lady Hawks have an unusual slate of matches this week, they were to have played Stillwater Christian in Kalispell Monday (results of that match were not available at press time) and will play Sanders County rival Plains at Plains Tuesday, with no other matches through the rest of the week.

Kazmierczak was looking forward to those two matches early this week. “It’s nice to be playing matches two days in a row, kind of like you would in a tournament,” she said. "And since we don’t have a district tournament this year, it will be good for us.”

Without a District 7B tournament this year, the Lady Hawks will be heading into the Western B divisional tournament in Mission November 6-8.

    WAVE OF EXCITEMENT swept through the Thompson Falls student cheering section Tuesday. The rabid pink support helped the Lady Hawks win a very tough match with Mission at TFHS. (John Hamilton/vp-mi)
  

    MAKING THE PLAY – Hawk senior Annalise Fairbank bumps up a service return against Mission at TFHS Tuesday. (John Hamilton/vp-mi)