CdA senior Rossner set for state

Outside hitter Katy Rossner may not lead Coeur d’Alene High’s volleyball team in kills, blocks or digs.

If they kept stats for consistency and senior leadership, however, her name would be right at the top.

Those qualities helped Coeur d’Alene to an unlikely sweep of Lake City for the 5A Region I championship and an automatic state berth.

Rossner took time after her team’s Tuesday evening practice to share some of the electricity in the Vikings camp.

“We’re all really excited to be able to go down to state this year,” said Rossner, one of five seniors on the squad. “We’re just giving it our all during practice and still having a good time.”

One has to look no further than Coeur d’Alene’s thrilling down-two-games-to-none comeback victory over Lewiston in the regional semifinal to find the Vikings’ springboard.

“We kind of started off slow, and it was really disappointing when we lost the second game,” said Rossner, who led the Vikings with 44 digs in the Lewiston match. “But we all kind of pulled together, and I think the seniors realized that it would just be horrible if we had to repeat a Grangeville accident (when CdA lost a play-in match) like we did last year.

“And we really wanted it for our team and for our school and just for North Idaho, pretty much.”

About 15 minutes later, the pumped-up Vikings took the court against LC.

“We always knew that we had the capability to go out there and give it our all and face, competitively, every team that we came up against and be able to hold our own,” Rossner said. “But sometimes it doesn’t mesh well with the right time of day and the right girls on the court.

“But it seems like, after (sweeping LC), we know that we can do it almost anywhere now.”

“Almost anywhere” now boils down to Burley High School, where Rossner and the Vikings open state play Friday against District III third seed Capital.

“We seniors, as a group, we’ve all been playing together since sixth, seventh grade,” said Rossner, who wants to continue playing volleyball at the college – “any college” – level. “So to all of us, this has been an amazing experience to be able to lead the team and call ourselves seniors.”