Sandpoint Stays On Course

It wasn’t stop-the-presses news Thursday in the A-1 Region I Tournament championship volleyball match at Lake City High School. At least not for defending state champion Sandpoint.

But check back in a week at the same site and the Bulldogs could be writing history.

Bidding to become the first undefeated A-1 team to win a state title, Sandpoint collected its fourth straight regional crown with a 15-6, 15-7 victory over Coeur d’Alene.

The Bulldogs, now 22-0 overall and winners of 27 straight matches since the state tourney last year, will open defense of their crown next Friday afternoon at Lake City against an opponent still to be determined.

Coeur d’Alene hopes to join the Bulldogs. To do so, the Vikings (19-20) must win a playoff against Nampa on Saturday at Grangeville.

The Vikings rebounded courageously from the loss to Sandpoint to eliminate cross-town rival Lake City 15-8, 16-14 in a match where emotion and guts carried both teams and caused some spirited rallies.

Fourth-seeded LC (16-12) earned the right to face No. 3 CdA when the Timberwolves knocked off second seed Lewiston (14-11) 15-11, 15-8.

Sandpoint-CdA

The Vikings pushed the Bulldogs the first half of both games before Sandpoint found the groove that no team has been able to defend this season.

“I kept yelling at (my team) to make it happen, not to play point for point,” Sandpoint coach Jeff Hurst said. “We had to make something happen for ourselves, and finally we did that.”

With the first game tied 7-all, Sandpoint scored the final eight points, seven coming with Tiwi Bond behind the service line.

It was actually the combination of Bond’s serving and Alli Nieman’s ferocious hitting that pushed the Viks off the court in the opening game. Bond had two aces and came close on another and Nieman had three kills and a stuff block in the final run.

“That’s probably our best rotation (Bond serving and Nieman at the net),” Nieman said. “Tiwi serves such a tough floater. Everybody just flows in that rotation.”

Junior Mandy Ringhand kept the Viks off-balance in the first game as well with four kills.

Sandpoint took command much earlier in the second game, outscoring CdA 12-3 to close the match. Nieman finished with eight kills, including a stuff block on match point, and Ringhand totaled six kills.

CdA-LC

The first thing Vik coach Karla Mitchell told her team following the loss to Sandpoint was not lose focus of the ultimate goal - to qualify for state.

Though the road to state has one final stop Saturday, the Viks did what they had to do Thursday. They survived.

Behind tough serving by Kylee Stolp, CdA used a block by setter Kim Towery and four straight LC errors to take the first game.

Then the Viks fought back from 12-6 and 14-9 deficits in the second game. LC never had a chance to close out the match after its final lead at 14-9 as the Viks’ Jill Pederson and Kim Pearson wouldn’t let the match go to a third game.

Pearson, a middle hitter, was particularly inspiring as she had seven blocks in the second game.

Match point seemingly went on for minutes. In fact, a save beyond the T-Wolves’ endline by Jenny Owen staved off defeat momentarily before a tip by Pederson ended it.

“I knew if we’d just get momentum we’d be fine,” Mitchell said. “I was worried about the fatigue factor (going in against LC). We didn’t want to go three games with playing back-to-back (matches).”

LC coach Kent Scanlon praised CdA.

“Credit Coeur d’Alene,” Scanlon said. “They served well when they needed to and got some key blocks and put us in position where we were forcing a few things. They’re playing well right now. They played very well against Sandpoint for the first seven points and Sandpoint took over. But they’re playing well and deserve to be the second-place team out of this region.”

Lewiston-LC

In the opening game in the loserout match, LC used two kills by everimproving sophomore outside hitter Heather Stetson, an ace by Missy Asher, two Lewiston hitting errors and a block by Lindsay Herbert to open an 6-0 lead.

The Bengals fought back behind hitters Laura Bloom and Andrea Gomez to take a 9-8 lead and extended their advantage to 11-9.

But LC closed the match like it started, scoring the final six points for the game. Herbert and Asher punctuated the Timberwolves’ opening- game win with a kill each.

Lewiston immediately seized momentum to start the second game. The Bengals ran off seven unanswered points. But the T-Wolves showed uncharacteristic composure, chipping away at Lewiston’s lead before tying the score at 7-all.

An LC hitting error gave the Bengals’ their final lead at 8-7.

LC took advantage of six Lewiston errors in the final eight points to end the Bengals’ season.

, DataTimes