Lumberjacks fall short in title quest

St. Maries and Sugar-Salem staged two classic, marathon volleyball matches Saturday at the State 3A tournament at Coeur d’Alene High’s Elmer Jordan Court. From St. Maries’ perspective, the only thing missing was a third showdown.

The Lumberjacks pushed the defending state champions to five games in both contests before Sugar-Salem escaped with narrow fifth-game victories. The Diggers outlasted St. Maries 25-13, 16-25, 20-25, 25-21, 15-12 in a championship match that left fans for both teams standing in appreciation.

“At one point, I heard someone in the stands say, ‘My heart can’t take this,’ ” St. Maries volleyball coach Jamie Sloper said. “It was a very nail-biting match, back and forth, but it was great volleyball.”

In an earlier winner’s bracket semifinal, Sugar-Salem (35-6) edged the Lumberjacks 25-22, 25-20, 17-25, 14-25, 15-13. St. Maries (26-7) rebounded to eliminate third-place Shelley 25-18, 25-10, 22-25 and 25-16. Bear Lake (23-17) finished fourth after falling to Shelley (36-14).

Priest River (11-12) was eliminated by Shelley 25-18, 25-22, 25-18.

The Diggers lost just six matches: one to 5A champion Eagle, three to 5A runner-up Idaho Falls and two to 4A champ Bonneville.

“The players just dug in, and that last four or five points was all heart,” Diggers coach Trisha Chatterton said.

The title match began tilting Sugar-Salem’s way late in the fourth game. The Diggers climbed out of a 19-17 hole behind senior middle Lindsay Dunn, whose sister, Adrielle, plays for North Idaho College. Dunn had three kills as Sugar-Salem pulled out a 25-21 win.

St. Maries used back-to-back kills by Katie Felix to move ahead 12-11 in the fifth game. Dunn responded with a kill and a block. Brooke Hansen added a kill and Dunn closed it out with another kill.

Points were hard-earned as both teams came up with countless digs to extend the action.

“My girls played great, but things just didn’t go their way,” said Sloper, whose team would have needed to defeat Sugar-Salem twice to win the title.

Lumberjacks senior Shawna Heath, a force throughout the tourney, had 23 kills.

St. Maries advanced to the championship match by defeating Shelley for the second time in the tourney. Felix had two kills as the Lumberjacks pulled away late in the first game. Heath’s kill punctuated an easy second-game win.

Shelley won the third, but Heath, Felix and setter Michelle Guidry spurred St. Maries to a fourth-game victory.

In the first Sugar-Salem-St. Maries match, the Diggers took the first two games, but both were highly competitive. Heath piled up 11 of her 30 kills in the first game and kept her team within striking range, but the high-rising 5-foot-9 Hansen drilled two late kills and an added an ace on game point.

Heath continued to pound away and the Lumberjacks rallied in the third and fourth games when her teammates helped with the offensive attack. Felix, who finished with 14 kills, ended the fourth with a cross-court kill.

The fifth game was tied at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 before the Diggers took the lead for good. Hansen and Heath traded kills until the Diggers’ Katelyn Palmer earned the final point. Even that was contested as St. Maries dug the ball, but couldn’t chase it down after it bounced around in the ceiling beams.

“We started kind of slow, but the third and fourth games I thought we dominated,” Sloper said. “We let Sugar get a couple points ahead (in the fifth) and we couldn’t catch up.”

Priest River was stung by passing and serving problems. The Spartans led early in the first game, but Shelley rattled off 10 of 13 points to take a 17-11 lead. Kills by Amber Trost and Alicia Schanilec gave Priest River an 18-13 edge in the second, but Shelley rallied by scoring six of the final seven points.

“It’s always rough to end the season on a loss, especially a loss like that,” Priest River coach Katie Bodecker said. “But I told them they have to remember the highlights of the season and all their accomplishments. It was a great accomplishment to even make it to state and then to make it to Saturday and just be in contention for a trophy.”