The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

The Harlem Lady Cats were in Malta this past Saturday for the Malta Invitational Volleyball Tournament. In years past the tournament has had enough teams to split into two pools and play a round robin format before playing a single elimination tournament. This past weekend only five teams were on hand at the season opening invitational with the host Malta M-ettes, Plentywood Wildcats, Circle Wildcats and the North Country Mavericks and the Harlem Wildcats.

Harlem Head Coach Kim Faulkinberry and her staff have done remarkable job building the program up the past several years. The Lady Cats have come from barely being able to scrape together a varsity team to qualifying for the Northern B Divisional for the first time in school history to playing for the District 2B Championship.

The Lady Cats have consistently had high participation for several years now and have been able to field a Varsity, Junior Varsity and C Squad team throughout. Harlem went from no one being selected to post season All-Conference teams to having multiple players selected each season including one being named to the All-State team.

Such progress has allowed Coach Faulkinberry the opportunity to develop players throughout their four years of high school rather than throwing them into the fire as freshman and sophomores. Being able to build that kind of depth is necessary for the Lady Cats to compete for a top spot in the District 2B standings. The District 2B included the Lady Cats, the Poplar Indians, Wolf Point Wolves, Glasgow Scotties and Malta M-ettes.

The Malta Invitational may not have had the number of teams as in years past but the quality of teams was pretty good overall and featured a couple of preseason favorites. With just five teams organizers decided to drop any tournament type of format and just decided to play two sets to 25 with no time limit against each opponent on hand.

This format did have it's upside in that it guaranteed each team more time on the floor. Generally the invitational had a 30 minute time limit in pool play making it very difficult to complete two sets. By playing each set to 20 regardless, the opportunity to see more from the kids on their roster was well received.

In their opening match the Lady Cats squared off against the North Country Mavericks, perennial contended in the Eastern C and a team Harlem has played regularly for a few seasons now. Harlem won a back and forth nail-biter that went the distance with the Lady Cats taking the set 25-23. Set number two was all Harlem as the girls coasted to a lopsided 25-7 set win to take the match 2-0.

Match number two had the Lady Cats taking on the host M-ettes in a District 2B preview. Malta took both sets, 25-19 and 25-17, but the Lady Cats played well and sent a message that they weren't going to be a pushover when the teams meet in District 2B play.

Mary Mount

Harlem seniors Myla Rider (4) and Jessica King (2) combine for a nice block against the Malta M-ettes in their second match of the day.

In Harlem's third match of the day they took on the Plentywood Wildcats in what was probably the most evenly played match of the day. Harlem took the first set in a thriller 25-24. The Lady Cats had their chances in set number two, but were unable to close falling 21-25 to earn a split in the Contest.

The Lady Cats concluded their day with tired legs against the Eastern C powerhouse Circle Wildcats. "Circle was tough and firing on all cylinders, we played tired and not determined like we did in our first three match ups," commented Faulkinberry afterwords.

The Lady Cats had several outstanding performances on the day beginning senior Mylah Rider leading the team with 13 Aces. Senior Jessica King set the hitters up with a team high 27 assists. Rider slammed home 14 Kills on the day while also defending the net with a team high five blocks.

This week the Lady Cats travel to Wolf Point on Thursday for their District 2B opener and host St. Labre on Saturday.