Wednesday’s regional sports briefs

Bison soccer opens at home Thursday

The Great Falls High School soccer teams, disappointed after their Jamboree last weekend was wiped out from bad air quality due to fires and smoke in the area, will get their season started Thursday afternoon when the Bison teams host Butte High at Siebel Soccer Park.

The Bison boys’ varsity, coached by Lalo Cabrales, will get things started at 3:30 against the Bulldogs, while the girls of Lindsay Smith will go at 5:30.

Saturday, C.M. Russell High will travel to Butte, with the boys playing at 11 a.m. and the girls at 1.

Prep golfers travel to Fairmont for tourney

ANACONDA — Golf teams from both Class AA schools will travel down to Fairmont Hot Springs Thursday for the Fairmont Invitational.

The Great Falls High girls grabbed a third-place finished at last week’s Billings Invitational, just one week after a second-place result at the Great Falls Invite. CMR finished sixth in Great Falls and fifth in the Magic City.

In boys’ competition, the Bison finished seventh in both tourneys, while CMR was 13th at the Great Falls meet and 10th in Billings.

All 14 Class AA teams will participate in the tourney, which begins with a shotgun start at 10 a.m. Friday’s second round starts at 9.

Bison volleyballers face Hellgate in road clash

MISSOULA — Great Falls High looking for a little good news, got some this week when junior middle hitter Sarah Dutro was cleared by Bison training staff and her doctor to play Thursday when the Bison travel to Missoula Hellgate for a 7 p.m. match against the Knights.

“As of right now, she is good to go,” GFH volleyball coach Katherine Sunwall said. “She had the concussion protocol issued from both her doctor and our training staff.”

Dutro was hurt after diving for a ball during their first set of Saturday’s match against Glacier, won by the Wolfpack in four sets. Dutro left the court woozy and was not allowed to return.

“We will keep an eye on her,” Sunwall said.

The Bison are going for their first victory of the young season.

Second inning dooms Voyagers

MISSOULA — The Voyagers fell to the Missoula Osprey 8-1 here Wednesday night.

A six-run second frame for Missoula, which sent Great Falls starter Matt Ball to the bench for Chris Freudenberg, was highlighted by Isan Diaz’s grand slam to left field. Ball gave up seven runs on five hits in one-and-two-third innings of work.

Great Falls (32-36, 15-17) came in trailing the Osprey (40-28, 17-14) by 1.5 games for the second half title and were one game ahead of Billings in the wild card. The Voyagers now trail Missoula by 2.5 games and are only a half-game ahead of the Mustangs for the final playoff spot.