First week of competition offers surprises

There’s something about returning to your roots.

Before falling on difficult times upon entering the Greater Spokane League as a 4A school in 1999, East Valley’s cross country teams enjoyed considerable success.

The girls team had won four straight 3A or AA high school state titles, and finished second between 1994 and 1998. The boys team made three successive state appearances between 1996 and 1998, finishing as high as fourth.

Since then, University and West Valley teams had continued to be among the best in their respective classifications.

The first week of GSL competition indicated a possible shift in Valley power, now that EV is back as a 3A school. The Knight boys had a promising start on Wednesday.

Led by veterans Nick Atwood, a junior, and Keith Holt, with a boost from sophomore Tyler Thatcher, they beat the Eagles 23-32 and narrowly lost to Shadle Park (27-28) and Lewis and Clark (26-29).

The girls also beat the Eagles, Jo E. Mayer finishing second overall. Larson Agee, in fifth-place, was the only WV runner in either race to have a top-10 finish.

Wednesday also was a revelation at the 4A level where Central Valley’s boys and girls started the season 3-0 and University went 0-3.

Granted, the young Titans losses came against state perennials Mead, Mt. Spokane and Ferris. But the girls start was surprising, given the last time they had lost more than one GSL race in a season was 1999.

They have been a top-two finisher for most of the past decade and beyond and their freshman and JV teams last year were dominant.

“We’re young and inexperienced, and Karen Owens (U-Hi’s highest girls finisher in 12th) twisted her ankle. That took her out of contention,” said Steve Llewellyn, who is in his last year as Titans coach. “Sometimes you learn more in defeat than with easy wins. By the end of the season it will be another day.”

Central Valley’s boys and girls breezed against Gonzaga Prep, Clarkston and Rogers as expected.

Sophomore Sean Coyle was second to Bullpup standout Michael Skansgaard. He was one of a young crew, including fellow sophomore Nathan Damiano, freshman Travis Sturman and juniors Alex Blackburn and Matt Simpson, who were among six Bears among the race’s top nine.

CV’s girls had five scorers among the top nine finishers. Three are juniors, Anna Layman, who finished second, Melanie Banna and Adrienne Duval. Freshman Melinda Miller was CV’s second finisher, in fifth place.

Soccer hits full throttle

Valley soccer teams Wednesday began the first of six successive two match Greater Spokane League weeks.

After two contests, University is the lone Valley unbeaten.

The Titans got past Lewis and Clark 3-2 on Wednesday to remain part of a four-team tie for first place and run their record to 4-0 overall.

Tonya Schnibbe scored two more goals giving her seven in four matches, including nonleague. Schnibbe’s 37 career goals are third highest from league records dating back a decade. She has the better part of two seasons to go.

Central Valley scored only once, by Jenny McKinsey on a corner kick from Sara Wilson North Central failed to clear, and evened its GSL record. Overall the Bears are 3-1, McKinsey the team’s scoring leader with three.

East Valley played at Rogers Friday in search of its first league victory. The Knights have lost to unbeatens U-Hi and Ferris, the latter 2-1. To date, Naomi Varney has scored all five goals for the team which is 1-2 overall.

West Valley is 2-2 overall, but winless in league following Wednesday’s 4-0 loss to Mead. Junior Lindsay Hood and sophomore Krystal McCarthy share the team scoring lead with three goals apiece.

Now there are two

University’s dominance up front was telling and left the Titans and Mead as the GSL’s only unbeaten volleyball teams.

The Titans had over 30 kills from six different front row players to sweep mistake-plagued Ferris 25-20, 25-21, 25-17 Thursday in a match between unbeaten league teams.

Serving woes in particular undid the visiting Saxons who hung within a point or two of U-Hi through 18 in all three games before the GSL co-leaders would take command.

In game one it was Daidre Mendenhall, who had seven kills and at one point put the ball down on four of five points that rallied the team from a 12-7 deficit. She also had the game winner among seven total kills.

Game two was more a matter of serving, Mendenhall with three of the team’s seven service aces. And in game three, Mandy Daniels, who also had an impeccable night in the back row with 21 digs, had five kills, including the final two points.

U-Hi (5-0) still has three 4-1 teams left to play and its showdown at Mead is Sept. 28.

Football teams fall to 0-3

West Valley and University both fell to 0-3 in Thursday GSL football games.

The Eagles gave up 27 second quarter Lewis and Clark points and lost 27-7. Mitch Phillips scored the team’s fourth quarter touchdown.

J.D. Peterson threw touchdown passes to Matt Hanna and Chris Fairbanks in the Titans’ 38-12 loss to Mead.