Griffitts Powers Vikings To Victory Win Sets Up Rematch In Division I Playoffs

The top seed in the A-1 Division I Region I girls volleyball tournament was at stake at Coeur d’Alene High School Thursday night, and Coeur d’Alene, led by Lorin Griffitts over-powering kills, made sure cross-town rival Lake City didn’t get it.

“All day, all I thought about was this,” Griffitts said. “It was an important match, and we brought our intensity.”

Intensity was evident from both benches and the crowd throughout the match.

The Vikings’ 15-13, 11-15, 15-13 victory forced a three-way tie in Division I, with Coeur d’Alene, Lake City and Lewiston all finishing with a 3-6 league record. But Lewiston earned the top seed because it defeated the other schools during regular-season play. The Bengals will get a first-round bye then will play the winner of Tuesday’s 7 p.m. crosstown, loser-out rematch at Coeur d’Alene with a state berth up for grabs.

The loser of the rematch will head to Grangeville Oct. 21 for a playoff against the District III (Boise area) 3rd place team at 1, for another shot at a state berth.

In the first match, the Vikings jumped out to an early lead behind Griffitts right arm. LC responded with several kills by senior middle hitter Rachel Mogen.

Despite times when both teams looked like they were going to pull away, neither team could.

The match stayed tight until Cd’A took advantage of four net violations and two four-hit violations to take the game 15-13.

The Timberwolves got off to a hot start in the second game as Mogen had three straight kills.

After several long, hard-fought rallies, and four more Mogen kills, LC won the game 15-11.

“We were confident coming in, just because it’s Cd’A,” Mogen said. “This was pretty much the beginning of Districts.”

In the final game, the Viks built a 6-1 lead on kills from Sara Liverman and Griffitts, but again fell victim to Mogen kills. After pulling away on Griffitts kills to 13-7, LC rallied to bring the score to 13-10. The score stayed that way for six serves, until the Viks went up on another Griffitts kill.

Mogen again kept the Timberwolves in it with a kill, and LC scored three unanswered points. On her last kill attempt, however, Mogen went wide, and the Viks took the game 15-13.

“They played us tough,” Coeur d’Alene coach Bret Taylor said. “I give our players a lot of credit though, they deserve the win.”

“They’ll (Cd’A) be confident,” LC coach Kent Scanlon said of next week’s rematch, “but we have a score to settle, and we’ve got a great team to do it with.” Also in the league, Lauren Baszler served 16 of 17 and Emily Bennett had 12 kills as Moscow won at Clarkston 15-13, 15-11, 15-4. Jessica Vasquez had 24 kills for the second-place Bears (10-4, 7-2). The last-place Bantams fell to 2-11, 1-7. … Rochelle Ruen had 11 straight aces in the second game of Sandpoint’s 15-4, 15-0, 15-11 home win over Cheney (6-7, 4-3). Ruen also had 18 assists, 4 blocks, 3 digs and 3 kills for first-place Sandpoint (19-3, 9-0). Everyone played for the Bulldogs. … Melissa Hirst and Maurissa Young had 10 kills each to lead Post Falls over visiting West Valley 15-9, 15-11, 14-16, 15-10. Nicole Boggs served four straight with two aces in the first game for Post Falls (14-10, 4-6). Mary McLachlan had 34 assists for WV (4-10, 3-5).

Jessica Yearout served seven straight points to lead St. Maries’ second-game comeback and the Lumberjacks went on to defeat visiting Lakeland 15-3, 15-8 to claim their 20th consecutive Intermountain League title. Kim Sines had 23 assists for St. Maries (23-2, 9-0) and Ashley Jamison had 12 assists and two aces for Lakeland (18-6, 8-2), the league’s secondplace team. … Hailey Hays scored 12 straight points in the second game to lead Bonners Ferry (12-5, 5-4) to a 15-3, 15-11 win at Timberlake (2-19, 1-9). … Kellogg (11-9, 5-5) won 15-5, 15-5 at Priest River (2-17, 1-9) behind Angie Turner’s two kills, a block and an ace.

Shana Worcester served eight points in the opening game and had nine digs as visiting Clark Fork defeated Mullan (6-8, 1-4) 15-3, 15-7 in a North Star League match. Clark Fork (24-1, 6-0) has won 18 straight league matches over three years. Courtenay Kiebert had 17 assists and five aces for the Wampus Cats. … Janelle Scheffelmaier had 5 assists as Kootenai (12-12, 4-2) won at home over Falls Christian (2-10, 0-5) 15-8, 15-6.

Visiting Wallace defeated Lakeside (Plummer) 15-4, 15-12 in a non-leaguer.