Sandpoint Puts Together Timely Upset

Serving, digging, passing, setting and hitting are critical facets by themselves and collectively in volleyball.

Timing, though, is the chain that links the physical skills together. Sandpoint had it Thursday and Coeur d’Alene didn’t. The Bulldogs upset the Inland Empire League champion Vikings 15-10, 11-15, 15-9 at Viking Gym.

The victory kept Sandpoint’s hopes of a second-place league finish alive as the Bulldogs improved to 4-3 in league, 10-10 overall. Lake City (4-3, 13-8) stayed even with Sandpoint with a big 15-8, 15-1 road victory over Lewiston (2-5, 9-8).

It was CdA’s final regular-season match. The Viks (7-1, 18-4) return to action Tuesday when they play host to a first round A-1 Region I match against either Lewiston or Post Falls.

The league runner-up also plays host to a first-round match. That could be decided Saturday when LC visits Post Falls (1-6, 7-13) and Lewiston travels to Sandpoint. As it stands, LC and Sandpoint will open against each other Tuesday.

It was a timely victory for Sandpoint, which had been struggling prior to Thursday.

“We were making a lot of errors,” Sandpoint coach Jeff Hurst said. “Every good play we had was backed up by an error. Let’s just call our play lately inconsistent.”

The Bulldogs were anything but inconsistent against the Viks.

Sandpoint used effective serving to send CdA to its first league defeat. The Bulldogs had six aces in the first match coupled with three kills by outside hitter Mandy Ringhand.

The Bulldogs opened a 6-1 lead in the first game, and they pushed it open to 14-7 before putting CdA away.

CdA, which has rarely displayed jitters this season, bounced back in the second game. The Viks ran off six straight points to forge a 12-6 advantage. Sandpoint clawed back to within three at 14-11, but CdA prevailed when Jessica Janke stuffed a kill attempt by Ringhand.

And the Viks seemed to be set to stave off the upset when they jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the third game. But Sandpoint rallied slowly, scoring ultimately the final 14 points of the match.

The Bulldogs finished with 15 aces. Ringhand had a team-high nine kills.

After a 20-minute chat with her team, CdA coach Karla Mitchell emerged from the locker room with a smile on her face.

“Hey, if we’re going to lose it might as well be this week than next week,” she said. “I think we all had our worst night. It happens, they’re kids. Sometimes you just bomb out.”

CdA standout middle hitter was perhaps the epitome of the Viks’ troubles. She didn’t have a kill in the first two games before finishing with three.

It may have been a timely loss for CdA, Mitchell said.

“We’re not going to dwell on this,” Mitchell said. “It’s good from the point that we can use this for motivation. Sandpoint played well. For us it’s a wakeup call.”

And Hurst will milk the victory for all it’s worth.

“We needed this win to pull us out of our slump - our inconsistent play,” he said.

At Lewiston, Lake City (13-8, 4-3) received six kills and four blocks from junior middle hitter Alison Asher to make quick work of the Bengals (9-8, 2-5).

Lindsay Herbert added five aces and Melanie Adams had seven digs.

Amy Lemon had six kills, including the match-decider, as Kellogg (14-5, 6-3) clinched second place in the Intermountain League with a 15-6, 11-15, 17-15 squeaker over visiting Priest River (8-12, 3-7).

Joey Luchini added six kills for the Wildcats, who trailed the third game 8-2. Jacey Vogrig had 15 kills and Katie Peterson 22 assists for PR, which can tie for fourth place if Bonners Ferry loses to Moscow Tuesday.

Moscow (10-11, 4-5) stands in third place after a 14-16, 15-3, 15-4 comeback win over host Lakeland at Rathdrum. Amber Jamison had nine kills, Jamie Harwood seven blocks and Cassie Beyer 14 assists for the Hawks (8-12, 2-6).

Clark Fork (10-10) beat host North Idaho Christian 15-5, 15-3 in a non-league match at Hayden. Lisa Freeman’s three kills, two aces and six digs led the host Lions.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Follow the leaders If you want an up-to-date list of area football scoring leaders, check out the high school football link in Virtually Northwest, the on-line service of the Spokesman-Review. Point your browser to http://www.VirtuallyNW.com.