Sandpoint Rises To The Occasion

Sandpoint High School volleyball coach Jeff Hurst was right.

Hurst said before the season that there’s little-to-no comparison between his team that won the 1994 State A-1 championship and this year’s edition. Though many of the key players returned this season, Hurst is sure the 1995 Bulldogs would easily handle last year’s team.

Using stout serving and a balanced attack at the net, Sandpoint breezed past the Lake City Timberwolves 15-9, 15-3 in an Inland Empire League match Tuesday at Lake City.

Though pleased with the win - which raised Sandpoint’s league record to 3-0 and 7-0 overall - Hurst was relatively unimpressed overall.

“To be honest, I wasn’t super-pleased with the way we played,” Hurst said. “We did things OK, well enough to win, but not necessarily great.”

LC coach Kent Scanlon had many appreciative things to say about Sandpoint, however.

“They have an awful lot of weapons … an awful lot of weapons,” said Scanlon, whose team slipped to 1-1 and 5-5. “Right now they’re a better team than we are. Hopefully, in a month, that story will change. We have a number of things to work on.”

Winning its 12th straight match since last year’s state tourney, Sandpoint used two runs of solid serving in both games to take control.

In the first game, the Bulldogs took the lead for good at 7-6 on an ace from Tiwi Bond. Two more aces by Bond, coupled with a net violation, extended Sandpoint’s lead to 10-6.

LC’s Natalie Telford recorded consecutive stuff blocks to cut Sandpoint’s lead to 12-9.

Sandpoint closed out the game on a kill from the left side by Mandy Ringhand and an ace from reserve Keiki Lovell.

Left-handed Jenny Verby served the T-Wolves out of the second game. She recorded three aces during a seven-point run, and Sandpoint pushed its lead to 10-1 before LC briefly interrupted the Bulldogs’ run.

Two aces from Tanya Allmaras and a kill five sideouts later by Allmaras gave Sandpoint a 14-3 lead. Setter Stacey Moline served an ace on match point.

“Serving was the difference,” Scanlon said. “Besides the fact we didn’t serve as well as we should have - we had at least five errors in each game - they’re serving took our confidence away. After that, we could not generate the plays because they surgically dissected us with their hitting.”

Sandpoint’s front-row fivesome of Bond, Ringhand, Allmaras, Verby and Alli Nieman combined for 18 kills. Middle blockers Bond and Nieman led with six and five kills, respectively.

Telford led LC with five kills and Jenny Owen added four and 19 digs.

“The big difference (between the Sandpoint of this year and Sandpoint of last year) is they’ve got Ringhand, and she provides a new dimension,” Scanlon said of the 6-foot junior outside hitter. “Last year, they had Allmaras and that was about it on the outside. With their middles (Bond and Nieman), who you have to respect, those girls are hitting alone outside with virtually a single block.”

In another IEL match, Coeur d’Alene topped visiting Post Falls 15-8, 15-11.

CdA raised its record to 2-1 in league, 12-8 overall. Post Falls slipped to 0-2, 8-12.

Lyndsy Klaudt and Jessica Waltz led the Trojans with four kills each. No details were reported by CdA.

St. Maries (4-0, 10-1) took control of the Intermountain League with a 15-5, 15-7 win at Kellogg (3-1, 5-3). Jenny Goodson and Pauline Costa had three kills apiece for the host Wildcats.

At Rathdrum, visiting Priest River (4-1, 10-2) jumped into second place in the league with a 15-11, 6-15, 17-15 win over Lakeland.

Jenny Borg had 12 kills and Sarah Chiappe 11 for the Hawks (1-3, 5-6).

At Post Falls, Sally Lyons had eight aces and Tish Taylor seven assists as Falls Christian (3-1, 5-2) defeated visiting Kootenai 15-12, 15-11 in the North Star League.

Audrey Wallace and Sarah Peterson added four kills apiece for the Eagles. The Warriors are 0-3, 4-11.

At Plummer, Adrianna Malley had four aces and 16 assists as visiting Clark Fork (4-1, 4-3) defeated Lakeside 15-12, 15-8 to retain second place in the NSL.

Haily Schofield added six kills, and Donella Pratt and Angie Ponack three aces apiece for the Wampus Cats. The Knights are 0-3, 0-10.

Girls soccer

Malea Schumacher beat a defender inside the left post and scored from 8 yards out as visiting East Valley edged Coeur d’Alene 1-0 in a non-league match.

The Knights outshot CdA 17-10, forcing Rachel StormoGipson to make 11 saves. The Vikings are 5-3-1.

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