Sixteen Class AA and Class A volleyball teams will descend on the Garden City for the annual Missoula County Public Schools Invitational tournament Friday and Saturday in the gyms at Missoula Hellgate and Missoula Sentinel.
Each member of both eight-team pools will play seven matches in a best-of-three game format beginning at 9:30 a.m. Friday with the day’s final contests slated to begin at 6:20 p.m. The top four finishers from each poll will advance to Saturday’s championship bracket play at Sentinel, starting at 9 a.m. with the championship and consolation matches scheduled for 3 p.m.
The remaining eight schools will compete in the consolation bracket at Hellgate.
Those playing in Friday’s Sentinel Pool include Frenchtown, No. 3 Helena High, fifth-ranked Kalispell Glacier, Whitefish, Great Falls CMR, Missoula Big Sky, Columbia Falls and Sentinel. Playing in the Hellgate Pool are Helena Capital, Anaconda, Libby, No. 2 Kalispell Flathead, Great Falls High, Butte High, Polson and Hellgate.
The Helena Bengals will be shooting for their third straight Missoula Invitational championship. Last year, Helena earned a 25-19, 25-12 defeat of Glacier in the title match.
The tournament will feature each of the Western AA league leaders in hitting percentage entering this week’s action. That list includes Arizona State recruit Kwyn Johnson of Flathead, Kaitlyn Oliver from Helena, Cassie Krueger from Flathead and Madison McCarthy of Sentinel.
