NIC dumps Snow in volleyball, head for national tournament

Ask North Idaho College volleyball coach Bret Taylor what happened and he points to team-wide contributions, as the Cardinals bounced back from a ragged game one loss.

Ask Snow counterpart Les Calles what happened, and he simply replies, “Collese Dornan happened.”

They’re both probably right. Dornan served up six aces and had loads of help from her teammates in NIC’s 24-30, 30-22, 30-19, 30-19 Region 18A Tournament victory over Snow on Saturday at Christianson Gym, clinching the Cardinals’ first berth ever to the NJCAA Tournament.

“After that first game I was a little concerned,” Taylor said, “but the girls pulled together and believed in themselves. They came out (in game two) and said, ‘That’s enough,’ and just started playing.”

NIC’s win put an end to a strange week. Third-ranked College of Southern Idaho would have hosted the event, but it was penalized Wednesday by the NJCAA for exceeding the limit of foreign athletes on scholarship. With CSI out of the picture, the three-team tournament shifted to NIC, which took advantage of the break in impressive fashion.

“We just adjusted and tried to play as hard as we could,” Dornan said. “If we would have played CSI we think had a chance to beat them.”

NIC (24-17 overall) will likely play a District 11 opponent in the first round of the NJCAA Tournament on Nov. 22 in West Plains, Mo.

NIC was tentative at the outset. Snow (10-18), which defeated Eastern Utah in three games to advance to the title match, capitalized with a 12-3 run to finish off the first game. But it was all Cardinals from there – and we do mean all Cardinals.

Tournament MVP Kara Kiefer had 11 kills and eight digs. Chanele Larsen had 11 kills and stretches of domination at the net. Tiana Maua contributed 27 assists, five kills and 12 digs. Jessica Holland added seven kills, one block and seven block assists.

Liz Smith, just returning to form from a shoulder injury, had 10 kills to go with a .429 hitting percentage. Defensive specialist Kelsey Kinzer had 11 digs.

“It was great that everybody was involved,” Kiefer said. “That’s the fun thing about volleyball. Everyone has to be involved or you don’t have success.”

Kills by Larsen and Dornan and Katie Lippi’s ace got NIC off to a quick 4-0 start in the second game. Dornan’s block made it 16-9 and Kiefer’s spike hiked the lead to 24-15. Kiefer’s sixth and seventh kills of the game and Larsen’s block sealed a 30-22 win.

“It was a great effort by all of them, but I can’t say enough about No. 5 (Kiefer),” Taylor said. “She’s been a heck of a leader throughout the year.”

Dornan served NIC to an 8-3 lead early in the third game. Snow stayed close until Larsen put away a nice back-set from Maua, triggering a 9-2 run that Dornan capped with a cross-court winner on game point.

The fourth game followed a similar pattern. NIC took a commanding lead, in part because of Dornan’s serving and Snow’s inability to serve. Smith’s spike painted the line for a 27-17 lead and the Badgers committed the last of their six serving errors in the game on match point.

“I don’t know where that came from,” Dornan said. “I’ve never served like that in my life. I just started jump-serving.”

Dornan had six of NIC’s 11 aces. Snow had three aces and 12 serving errors. NIC also ruled the net with 13 team blocks to Snow’s 3.5.

“You have to serve tough and pass well and North Idaho did both,” Calles said. “It started with Collese. There were three games where her first service included maybe 4, 5, 6 serves in a row. You do that to another team, everybody else catches on fire. But she started the fire.”