Spikers do well at Northwest-Southwest tip-off tournament

The Columbia Falls volleyball team had a successful opening to its season at the Northwest-Southwest A tournament in Dillon last weekend.

The Wildkats went 8-2 in pool play in the Aug. 28-29 tourney.

On Friday, Columbia Falls defeated Hamilton 25-23, 25-14, Stevensville, 25-23, 25-20 and split with Corvallis, 25-19, 23-25.

On Saturday, the Cats split with Butte Central, 25-20, 14-25, swept Dillon, 25-14, 25-18, but lost to Corvallis in the final match of No. 1 seeds, 16-25, 25-23, 15-8.

Individual stats were not available.

“The girls looked really tough and played really hard both days,” said coach Jessy Matthews. “It was great to be able to show up with a fairly inexperienced team and be successful. The best part is that now we know what it feels like to be out there together competing and have a pretty good idea what we need to streamline in practice to just keep getting better and better each week.”

The Kats were the best seed from the Northwest A. The tournament was an early-season preview of sorts, as the conference tournament at the end of the year will feature the same schools.

The girls face Corvallis at home Saturday.