Ferris Rolls Into Regional

Saturday was just another day at the office for the Ferris Saxons, who worked their way to the Cavanaugh’s Inns Greater Spokane League District Volleyball championship at University High School.

The league-champion Saxons, who have defeated GSL opponents in 19 consecutive matches this season, beat Lewis and Clark twice Saturday to enter next weekend’s regional as the district’s top seed.

LC goes in second, Mead third and Rogers fourth, as the district tournament results duplicated the regular-season standings.

Davis comes in as the Big Nine’s top seed, with Pasco second, Walla Walla third and Eisenhower fourth. The regional tournament will be played at University and Central Valley on Friday and Saturday.

The Saxons walloped Lewis and Clark 15-6, 15-7 in Saturday evening’s championship contest, but the Tigers had pushed Ferris into three games in their afternoon winners’ bracket match.

The Saxons finally won that one 16-14, 13-15, 15-8 after trailing 12-5 and 14-11 in the first game and losing leads of 10-5 and 13-12 in the second. They trailed 6-4 in the third, but ran off nine straight points.

“Coming from way behind in that first game showed the kids something,” Saxons coach Stacey Ward said after the final match. “It was good for us to be able to lose a game and see that we could come back. We haven’t been in that position very often this year, but when our backs are against the wall, we don’t give up.”

Ferris handled the exhausted Tigers easily in the championship match, running off nine consecutive points in the first game and taking a 10-2 lead in the second. By then, LC had played three straight matches, following the earlier loss to the Saxons with a tough three-game victory over Mead.

The Tigers won the last two games of that match 15-12, 15-8 after Mead blew them out 15-3 in the first game, scoring 10 straight points before LC got on the scoreboard. Erin Naipo had a big third game, with back-to-back kills that sealed the deal.

In the afternoon’s first match, Mead’s Panthers eliminated Rogers 13-15, 15-8, 16-14.

Ferris star Missy Blackshire had the day’s glossiest stats, with 20 kills including 14 in the afternoon match. Teammate Janelle Morrisette recorded 54 assists and Darcy Ruemping had 23 digs.

But Ward saved her highest praise for senior middle blocker Jenny Meeker, who played with a painful migraine headache. Medication made Meeker nauseous, but she never missed a turn in the Saxons’ regular rotation, and had two blocks in the championship.

Frontier League

Colville, seeded second for the league tournament, dug itself a hole before rallying to knock off Clarkston, the fourth seed, 14-16, 3-15, 17-15, 15-9, 15-7 in a Frontier League season finale at Clarkston.

Paige Quistad sparked the Indians comeback with a 19-kill performance. Lindsey Braff totaled 29 assists and Mellisa Wollan had 19 digs for the Indians.

Amee Heytvelt had five kills and 22 blocks to pace the Bantams.

Clarkston plays East Valley at 7 p.m. and Colville takes on Pullman at 8:30 next Friday at East Valley in the first round of the league playoffs.

Northeast A League

Unbeaten Colfax defeated runner-up Newport 15-11, 15-3, 15-7 to win the league title for the second straight year.

Freeman clinched third place with a 15-6, 15-8, 15-9 win over Kettle Falls.

Chewelah topped Medical Lake 15-9, 15-11, 15-11 in a battle for the sixth and final district playoff berth for Saturday’s tournament at Central Valley.

Panorama League Tournament

At Springdale, Northwest Christian and Springdale clinched district playoff berths. NWC locked up a spot by defeating Inchelium 15-1, 15-3 and Northport 15-1, 15-8. Springdale is in with wins over Columbia 15-6, 15-9 and Selkirk 11-15, 15-3, 15-11. NWC plays Springdale on Monday to decide the order of the top two seeds.

Inchelium and St. George’s were eliminated.

In other matches, Northport beat Republic 13-15, 15-9, 15-9; Selkirk topped St. George’s 15-0, 15-2; Republic edged Inchelium 15-7, 12-15, 15-10 and Columbia defeated St. George’s 15-3, 15-8.

Monday’s matches open with Northport taking on Columbia at 4 p.m. at Springdale. Selkirk versus Republic will follow. The two winners then play to decide the third and fourth seeds to district.

Bi-County League Tournament

Davenport shocked two-time defending state champion Wilbur-Creston by handing the previously unbeaten Wildcats a 3-15, 15-13, 15-11 defeat at Wilbur.

Odessa beat Reardan 15-13, 16-14 to gain the fourth seed at district. Ritzville already clinched the No. 3 seed.

Southeast B District 9

At Walla Walla, St. John-Endicott, Waitsburg, Pomeroy and Tekoa-Oakesdale advanced to the second round of the district tournament. Next Saturday in Pullman, the four schools will battle for two state berths.

St. John Endicott topped Waitsburg 15-8, 15-4 in a match for the top seed from Pool 1, while Pomeroy gained the top seed in Pool 2 with a 10-15, 15-6, 16-14 win over Tekoa-Oakesdale.

Second-round pairings have not yet been determined.

NEA football

Fifth-ranked and unbeaten Chewelah clinched at least a tie for the Northeast A League title by crushing winless Kettle Falls 68-0 Saturday at Chewelah.

Josh McCoy led the Cougars’ offensive onslaught with 130 yards rushing on eight carries. McCoy also picked two of the four interceptions Chewelah (6-0, 8-0) had.

Kettle Falls (0-6, 0-8) had minus-5 yards rushing.

NEB-8 football

The host Cusick Panthers pasted Pateros 32-14 after jumping out to a 26-0 lead, all but eliminating the defending state champions from this year’s playoffs.

Cusick’s Juston Finley rushed for 297 yards on 28 carries, scored three touchdowns, and made 21 tackles.

Cusick gets into the playoffs with a win over Columbia next week. A Columbia win would send Pateros to the playoffs.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo