Griffitts takes charge as Coeur d’Alene sweeps Timberwolves

The best way to describe how Coeur d’Alene junior outside hitter Kama Griffitts has played this season is off and on.

Not only was Griffitts mainly on Thursday, but so were her teammates.

Griffitts had a match-high 15 kills to lead Coeur d’Alene to a 26-24, 25-10, 25-18 win over Lake City in an Inland Empire League match at Elmer Jordan Court.

“Kama had a phenomenal game,” Vikings coach Carly Curtis said. “Not only was she aggressive and intense in the front row, she did a great job in the back row. It was a good night for her to get her whole game together. Some nights she’ll be phenomenal in the front row and be a little less aggressive in the back. But she did a great job.”

CdA (15-5 overall, 8-2 league) secured the No. 1 seed in the 5A Region I tournament, which begins in two weeks. LC (9-9, 4-6) will be the second seed.

Hanna Johnson, CdA’s other dominant outside hitter, had 14 kills. Johnson and Griffitts also matched each other in digs (13) and aces (two).

“Our outsides were getting it down,” Curtis said. “I think that was Hanna’s best game. Both of those two were on fire – front row and back row. They’re just very athletic kids.”

Griffitts praised junior setter Natalie Stewart.

“Everything just came together,” Griffitts said. “It’s all thanks to the passers and the setter. I get my job done from Natalie and Natalie gets her job done from the passers. Everything was real fluid.”

LC gave CdA all it could handle in the first game. The Timberwolves opened a 22-14 lead, and they moved within a point of taking the game at 24-19.

But with Johnson serving, CdA reeled off the final seven points.

“We got a little out of sync and tried to get too fancy with our offense – running some stuff we didn’t have to,” Curtis said of the big first-game deficit.

Even though LC couldn’t hold off CdA in the first game, T-Wolves coach Jen Kelly was far from disappointed.

“This is a definite win for us performance-wise,” Kelly said. “We passed well, we hit well and we got to where at the end of the first game we did everything we could to win and it just didn’t go our way.”

The second half of the first game through the second was one of CdA’s best stretches all season.

“I told them that if you want to make state, that’s how you have to perform and if you want to actually be successful at state, that’s how you have to perform,” Curtis said.

Kelly continues to see improvement.

“We’re getting better every single day,” Kelly said. “We are further ahead than where we were two weeks ago when we played them.”

“In other IEL matches, visiting Moscow (12-5, 8-2) upset league-leading Sandpoint (12-1, 9-1) 25-19, 25-20, 14-25, 25-17. Collen Lopez led Moscow with nine kills and Kaiti Lunde had 12 for the Bulldogs. … Lakeland (5-8, 3-7) topped visiting Post Falls (3-14, 1-10) 25-12, 25-20, 13-25, 27-29, 16-14 at Rathdrum. Kari Rucker led Lakeland with nine kills. Amanda Jibby led PF with 12 kills.

“In the Intermountain League, St. Maries (19-2, 8-0) had no problem completing league play unbeaten as the Lumberjacks handled host Timberlake (0-12, 0-6) 25-4, 25-7, 25-7 at Spirit Lake. Shawna Heath led St. Maries with 12 kills. … Also in the IML, Priest River (8-7, 4-3) swept Bonners Ferry (7-10, 2-5) 27-25, 25-18, 25-23 at PR. Taylor Stewart led PR with 12 kills. Ashley Winkelseth paced BF with six blocks.

“In the North Star League, Kootenai (7-2, 7-1) held off visiting Lakeside (4-5, 3-4) 25-19, 25-11, 25-27, 25-17 at Harrison. Hannah Nyrop led Kootenai with 22 kills and Ruth Brunelle led the Knights with 25 kills. … Also in the NSL, Coeur d’Alene Charter (5-6, 5-3) stopped Wallace (6-5, 5-2) 13-25, 30-28, 28-30, 25-23, 15-8 at Wallace. Sabrina Ewing led Charter with 14 kills. Jessica Johnson had 15 kills to lead Wallace.