St. Maries Shows Early Success

Prep volleyball

The faces and the names have changed on the youth-laden St. Maries High School volleyball team, and the Lumberjacks made more season-opening mistakes Tuesday night than most previous teams.

But they’re still the Lumberjacks.

St. Maries held off Lake City 15-13, 15-6 in the opening match, then the Lumberjacks fought off short-handed but pesky Coeur d’Alene 15-11, 15-12 in a pair of spirited matches at Viking Gym.

“To walk out of here with two victories against two really good teams is quite an accomplishment,” St. Maries coach Mitch Santos said. “Personally I felt we dodged two bullets. I think those two teams are probably a little better than we are as far as power at the net.”

Defense and effective if not sporadic serving carried the Lumberjacks.

In the first game of the opening match, LC’s Timberwolves did everything but beat St. Maries.

LC slowly opened a 10-6 lead, and had the Lumberjacks scrambling. But a couple of T-Wolf errors, an ace and a crushing kill by freshman Jamie Hammes ultimately gave the Lumberjacks the lead for good at 12-11.

St. Maries pushed the lead to 14-11. LC briefly rallied with two points before Hammes slapped a kill between two T-Wolves.

Mistake prone early, the Lumberjacks settled down in the second game and LC disappeared as St. Maries raced to an 11-2 lead before closing out the match.

“As I told the girls there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have had that first game except from what I’m calling early-season mistakes,” LC coach Kent Scanlon said. “I was pleased with the effort in the first game because you have to overcome them (the Lumberjacks) as a team as well as the myth.”

St. Maries’ streak of 10 straight State A-2 championships was snapped last year when the Lumberjacks fell to Preston in the title match.

LC’s outside hitter Natalie Telfor collected six kills and 13 digs. The Vikings, meanwhile, played with just six healthy players as three returning starters (Angie Shirley, Jill Pederson and Kylee Stolp) are recovering from preseason injuries.

And CdA coach Karla Mitchell almost lost another player Tuesday when Lena Anthony, trying to dig up a kill, dove face first into the hardwood.

Midway through the second game, Anthony complained of dizziness and came out for a few minutes. The Viks played a couple of side outs with just five players on the court before Anthony returned.

St. Maries had a difficult time shaking the Viks. In fact, an ace by Kim Pearson tied the first game at 11-11. But the Lumberjacks scored four straight points highlighted by two tandem blocks by Brooke Wolfe and Bridgette O’Dwyer off Jessica Janke’s attempted kills.

In the second game, Janke, whose overall play sparked the Viks, stuffed a free ball to give the Viks an 11-10 lead.

With the match tied at 12-12, St. Maries rolled off the final three points as the Viks had trouble returning serve.

Hammes led with 10 kills and Amanda Tams and Kim Reid added eight each in the first match. Tams added eight kills against the Viks.

Janke led CdA with eight kills and Pearson had five blocks.

“The kids had a good reason not to play well,” CdA coach Karla Mitchell said, alluding to the injuries. “The kids played like a team, that was the most important thing.”

At the Kellogg Playday, Priest River downed Kellogg 15-3, 10-15, 15-7 behind the Wildcats’ 86 percent serving; Bonners Ferry defeated Priest River 13-15, 15-12, 15-0 and lost to Kellegg 8-15, 15-5, 15-13. Against BF, Kellogg continued its accurate serving, hitting 85 percent. Melissa Hei served at 100 percent in the match.

In other non-league action; Wallace downed Mullan 15-11, 15-6 behind Joy Sperry’s nine kills and nine straight serves (seven aces); and Falls Christian defeated North Idaho Christian 15-3, 15-13, 15-4.

, DataTimes