The Helena High volleyball team take their Western AA leading 8-1 conference record into Saturday's match against Missoula Hellgate, as they host the last-place Knights.

In Helena's lastest action, coach Sheila Williams' players went 10-0 while capturing the Missoula Invitational championship last weekend in the Garden City.

In the title bout win over Missoula Sentinel, Helena served seven aces, keeping the Spartans off-balance to try and set anything for Jennifer Keddy, their 6-foot-4 all-state hitter.

"We knew that obviously Keddy is a nice player and she could take over a game at any moment," said coach Williams, whose charges are 15-4 overall. "The fact that we did a good job trying to move their serve-receive around was big for us. Our servers did a good job being aggressive. We talked about that before the game.

"If you're not passing well and can't get the ball to your hitters, it's tough, so that's what we tried to do."

Individually, the Bengals' Lindsay Allen ranks second in the state with a .377 hitting percentage. Monica Grimsrud is third in blocks, averaging 1.20 per game. In the serving category, Kelsey Williams rates fourth, with a .70 average.

One of Hellgate's (1-7, 4-13) best players is Brooke Bryant, who is fifth in the AA with a 4.25 digs average. Saturday's match starts at 7 p.m. in The Jungle.

The Bengals will entertain Sentinel in a contest between the West's top-two teams next Tuesday.

Bulldogs spikers still undefeated

Townsend remained unbeaten on the season with a 25-13, 25-10, 25-13 win over Jefferson in District 5B volleyball action Friday.

Delaware Hansen had 12 kills to lead Townsend, which also got 10 kills from Siohban Flynn and 22 assists from Gaelyn Dominoe.

Soja Giulio had 11 digs and Jordan Powers had five kills to lead Jefferson.

Townsend plays at Deer Lodge today at 3 p.m.

Leaders

Kills: Townsend (Delaware Hansen 12, Siobhan Flynn 10), Jefferson (Jordan Powers 5, Ashley Mahlum 4).

Assists: Townsend (Gaelyn Dominoe 22), Jefferson (Taelor Ungerman 8)

Blocks: Townsend (Jessica Sagissor 2), Jefferson (Mahlum 1).

Digs: Townsend (Sagissor 8, Jordan Audet 6), Jefferson (Soja Giulio 11).

Argonauts rally to beat Saints volleyball in five

The Carroll College Saints volleyball squad gave up an early two-set lead, eventually losing to the University of Great Falls Argos in five sets Friday night in Great Falls 25-27, 15-25, 25-22, 25-17, 15-9.

The Saints looked good in the early going, hitting .565 in the second set while scoring 14 kills with just one error.

"I thought we completely lost our focus after the second game," said Carroll coach Moe Boyle. "We had our chances. It seemed like we were trying to keep from making mistakes instead of being aggressive. We gave them a lot of confidence."

Christina Smetana, playing again after missing a week with an illness, came back strong. She finished the night with 14 kills and seven blocks. Ashlee Lupfer also played well, recording a kill and seven digs.

"I just want to mention Christina Smetana," Boyle said, listing Smetana's stats. "And that's coming off being out for a week with a kidney infection. And Ashlee Lupfer made some great plays for us tonight."

The Saints committed 34 attacking errors, while the Argos finished with 29. Things were clicking until midway through the third set, in which Carroll built up a 19-15 lead before squandering it and losing 25-22.

"That started a chain reaction of errors, of miscommunication," Boyle said. "Volleyball is a game of momentum, and when you lose that, it's hard to get it back. We played really, really well at times, and we checked out at times."

The loss moves the Saints (19-7, 7-4) into a three-way tie with UGF and Westminster College for third place.

Carroll plays again tonight at 7 p.m. against MSU-Northern in Havre.

Flathead volleyball defeats Capital High

Capital dropped the first leg of its two-match trip to Kalispell 25-14, 25-11, 25-20.

Further results were unavailable at press time.

The Bruins play at Glacier High today at 1 p.m.