Jacks Continue Iml Domination

Many words have been used to describe the St. Maries volleyball program during its current 19-year streak of Intermountain League and district championships - dynasty … dominating. … businesslike.

How about just plain good?

Not many who witnessed the Lumberjacks’ 15-4, 15-4 dispatching of IML runner-up Lakeland Thursday would argue that point.

With the win, St. Maries (9-0 IML, 22-3) clinched the No. 1 seed in the District I-II tournament beginning Tuesday. Lakeland (8-2, 14-9) is the No. 2 seed. Both teams have byes until the double-elimination portion of the tournament, which begins Oct. 23. Lakeland will meet the Orofino-Grangeville winner. St. Maries’ opponent is yet to be determined.

About the only critic of the Lumberjacks’ play following the match was St. Maries coach Mitch Santos, who has led his teams to 11 state titles in his 20-plus years as head coach.

“We really are not playing well at all right now,” Santos said. “We haven’t been able to practice with our entire lineup for about three weeks (due to injuries). We played just well enough to win tonight.”

St. Maries looked good early, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in Game 1. Lakeland’s Megan Egbert kept the Hawks close with two early kills and a tip. But after closing to 3-2, the Hawks went flat.

Behind the serving of Ariene Wilcott and the net play of Shena Charles, St. Maries ran off 11 of the next 12 points to go up 14-3. Charles had two kills and three tips during that stretch. A Lakeland unforced error gave the Lumberjacks the game.

Things went from not-so-good to worse for Lakeland in Game 2 and that is a pattern that Hawks’ coach Claudia Ebel would like to correct. Ebel was particularly unhappy over her team’s poor serving.

“One of our big downfalls tonight was our serving,” she said as she counted service errors aloud. “Eight serves - that pretty much tells the story right there. The past few matches, we’ve had problems in the second game.”

Game 2 took just 15 minutes. Led by the net play of Charles and the back-row play of Lauren Cuvala and Jessica Yearout, St. Maries jumped out to a 12-1 lead. A Lakeland minirun made it 12-4, but after a Lumberjack timeout, St. Maries closed the door. The match ended with Wilcott and Yearout combining to block a Hawks kill attempt.

Santos gave credit to his team’s back row - especially Cuvala and Yearout, who both finished with 11 digs - for securing the win. “Our back row played well tonight and Cuvala played extremely well,” he said. “Lakeland attacked the ball.”

Ebel, who knows the Hawks may face St. Maries again with a possible state tournament berth on the line, thinks her team will be ready.

“We can compete with them, but we have to be working at the top of our game and that was not the situation tonight,” she said. “I don’t think we are intimidated by them. Everyone just has to be clicking.”

Egbert finished with six kills for the Hawks and earned the praises of her coach.

“I thought Megan played well for us,” Ebel said. “She’s been solid for us all year long.”

Charles had 12 kills for St. Maries. Setter Lindsey Harpole added 25 assists and three aces.

In other Intermountain League matches, Katy Melun has four kills and seven digs as Kellogg (3-7, 8-11) defeated Priest River 2-1… . Meghan Mellett had 10 assists and Maia Hawks collected six digs to lead Bonners Ferry past Timberlake 2-1.

Megan Lippy had six aces and eight digs as first-place Sandpoint (9-0, 21-1) defeated Cheney 15-10, 15-1, 15-2 in Border League play… . Lisa Vasquez had 28 assists to lead second-place Moscow (8-1, 19-4) to a 3-0 win over Clarkston.

In North Star League play, Ashley Ruen had eight digs to lead Clark Fork past Mullan 2-0.

Girls soccer

Emily Benson assisted on the first goal for Lewiston and kicked in the winning goal in the Bengals’ 2-1 Border League win over Moscow…. Megan Foland assisted on one goal and scored the other in Cheney’s 2-0 win over West Valley… . In a non-league contest between two Border League foes, Jesy Rosholt scored two goals in Sandpoint’s 2-1 win over Lake City.

Boys soccer

Mike Beard and Jesse Norton each scored a goal and collected an assist in Moscow’s 4-0 North Idaho League win over Lakeland. Moscow improved to 8-3-0 in league and 11-3-0 overall. Lakeland fell to 1-10-2 and 2-11-3… . Post Falls opened the scoring in the first half against Lewiston, but the Bengals followed minutes later with two quick scores to edge the Trojans 2-1.

Football

Chas Sellmer ran for three touchdowns and caught a pass for another in Clark Fork’s 50-33 North Star League win over Kootenai.

The win gave the Wampus Cats a 3-2 league mark (3-3 overall) and the top spot in the North Star League. All four NSL teams were deadlocked in league play at 2-2 prior to Thursday’s game. Kootenai fell to 2-3 and 2-4.

Sellmer opened the scoring with a run in from the three and later in the half hooked up with Wampus Cats quarterback Brent Stutzke for a 48-yard touchdown reception. Stutzke also threw a 21-yard touchdown strike to Nick Valliere as Clark Fork took a 28-11 lead at the half.

Drew Wallace threw three touchdown passes for Kootenai.