U-Hi’s Tonya Schnibbe chooses Weber St. hoops

Throughout a stellar athletic career Tonya Schnibbe‘s loyalties have been divided between soccer and basketball.

Colleges have offered scholarships for both sports.

But this week, the University High star made her choice when she made an oral commitment to play point guard in basketball at Big Sky Conference Weber State instead of continuing her high-scoring soccer career at Gonzaga University.

“It wasn’t anything about choosing a sport; I couldn’t do that,” said Schnibbe. “It was more about what school would benefit me more for my future. I just liked it down there a lot and thought I’d fit in well there.”

Schnibbe said that Weber has a good mathematics program, and she wants to eventually teach the subject as well as become a basketball coach.

“So I might as well play it in college,” she said.

Making the decision was particularly difficult because she is close to the girls and coaches at Gonzaga. Bulldogs assistant Kieran Barton is her club coach.

“It was a tough phone call last night,” said Schnibbe. “I knew I’d have fun and do well for four years, and competitively I really looked forward to doing either one.”

But, she added that she thinks she has more room to improve in basketball and is ready to give it her full attention.

Titan soccer keeps lead

On Wednesday Schnibbe scored what proved to be the match winner in U-Hi’s 3-2 soccer victory over Mt. Spokane.

It gave her 11 goals in league and 14 overall this fall, giving her 65 goals during a four-year career.

“You can always rely on Tonya to put the ball in the net at least once a game,” said coach Kevin Houston.

Victory was the Titans’ eighth straight in league and 10th overall and kept them a point ahead of Gonzaga Prep and two ahead of Ferris in the league standings.

Four matches remain after Friday’s home match against Lewis and Clark, including against Mead, East Valley and Ferris.

Wednesday’s win included goals by sophomore Abby Goss and another four-year veteran, Alex Marquard.

Goss also provided energy in the second half for a team that led 2-0, then held on.

“That was a great shot for her,” said Houston of the 20-yard lob over Mt. Spokane’s defense and past the Wildcats keeper into the right side of the goal that opened scoring 17 minutes into the game.

“There have been several games this season where Abby has been an inspiration, whether making a terrific goal or making some great plays for us.”

Heading into Friday – when the Knights were at Ferris, West Valley hosted Mead and Central Valley hosted North Central – the Knights (5-3) were tied for sixth, the Bears (5-3) were a point behind in eighth and Eagles (1-7) were tied for 11th.

CV beat EV 2-1 and WV lost 3-2 in overtime to NC on Wednesday.

Newcomer breaks through

Although Central Valley’s hopes of a district volleyball playoff berth suffered a blow Thursday night, there were some bright spots in the four-game loss to Gonzaga Prep.

Most notably was the effort turned in by junior outside hitter Jaclyn Robinson, who led the Bears with nine kills, all of them coming in the final two games.

“It was her first match playing the whole time around, and she did an excellent job,” said coach Chad Coupland. “She’s a young kid and did what we asked her to do.”

It was almost good enough for the Bears to pull off an upset, but inopportune mistakes hurt the team.

“It’s a learning process for these guys,” said Coupland. “You tell the kids to be confident and be aggressive, but when you have young minds with a game on the line, it’s ‘Oh, my god, do I need to do this?’ But the kids played hard.”

Robinson is part of a CV youth movement. Seven players will return next year, five of whom played major roles in the Gonzaga Prep match. Juniors Kristin Telin, who had a combined 12 kills or blocks for points, Ashley Roberts, Lindsay Tomlinson and sophomore Allison Giusti were the others.

CV played without junior libero Kristen Coghill, sidelined with a hamstring injury. It forced Roberts into a new position as her replacement.

“She just did an outstanding job there,” said Coupland.

If the Bears (5-5) must wait until next year, University (7-3) is in the thick of things for a fourth-straight district tournament.

But the Titans, currently tied for third, have a tough finish. Tuesday they are at Shadle Park (7-3) and end the season the following week against Mt. Spokane (7-3) and at Lewis and Clark (9-1).

East Valley (3-7) twice lost five-game matches this past week, to Ferris and North Central, giving them three for the year. West Valley (3-7) lost to the Bullpups and Titans.

Liberty Cup decided

Monthly winners of the Liberty Lake 18-Hole Women’s Golf Club Liberty Cup competition gathered Tuesday to determine the 2005 champion.

Winner of the playoff was Carol Schultz who netted 77.

The club’s end-of-season luncheon will be Tuesday at Tony Roma’s.

Yellow Ball and medal play

Trailhead Ladies Golf Club conducted a yellow ball tournament, but also scored medalists during early October competition.

Betty Grassl shot 44 to lead A flight and teamed with Emma Long and Eileen Couper, that tied for the team title at 54.

Co-winners were Marcia Rowley, Joyce Jacobs and Penny Brace.

Sharron Collins shot 54 during medal play to lead B flight and Brace had 68 in C. Net winners were Dee Elder with 30 in A, Sandi Hatcher with 31 in B and Grace Libby with 36 in C.