Upstart Lake City brings home fourth place

Coeur d’Alene was haunted by slow starts while Lake City hoisted a shining fourth-place trophy during Saturday’s final day of the 5A state volleyball tournament at Post Falls High School.

The upstart LC Timberwolves surpassed maybe even their own expectations with a 3-2 victory over Boise in their morning match. Later in the day, Lake City fell to Highland 3-1.

CdA, meanwhile, saw a script eerily similar to its Friday loss to Idaho Falls play out against Highland as the Vikings dropped the first two games to the Rams before storming back to win the next two and then come up just short in the fifth.

The mighty Mustangs of Eagle, who have not lost to an Idaho team in two seasons, continued their dominance in the championship match, cruising 3-0 over second-place Idaho Falls to win their second title in as many years.

In other action, Eagle (34-2) was pushed to five games for the first time this season, outlasting Idaho Falls 3-2 in the championship semifinal, and Idaho Falls (37-9) defeated third-place Highland 3-1. The Rams finished 35-10.

In the third game of Lake City’s 3-2 win over Boise, a bad break here and a service error there cost the T-Wolves – instead of being up 2-1 they suddenly found themselves down 2-1. But LC dominated in the fourth game and held on for a 16-14 win in a fifth game that saw 10 ties and four lead changes.

LC coach Jen Kelly described the emotional victory, which she said was the best her team has played all season.

“It’s the battle of the beast in this game – everything is up and down,” Kelly said. “It was unfortunate that that (third game) got away from us, because we could have won in four there. … And we were down five points in (the fifth game) – and it is so hard to come back when you’re down in that last game. What I really like is that in the end, we went for winners, went up and hit the ball hard and just played great defense.”

The T-Wolves, during a 3-1 loss to Highland, won the second game 27-25 but never threatened the rest of the way.

But they weren’t going to let the loss get in the way of the post-tournament celebration.

Senior setter Sam Georgius, who had 37 assists in the win over Boise and 19 more against Highland, said there was some additional satisfaction in proving some of their naysayers wrong.

“Especially after this whole year – I mean a lot of people thought that we wouldn’t do very well,” Georgius said. “But to get fourth place at a state tournament isn’t very bad at all.”

Kelly, still floating from the win over Boise, wasn’t about to let the loss to Highland bring her down.

“It was a great tournament, and it was a great team tournament,” Kelly said. “Our numbers, our individual performances and our team performance were the best we’ve had all year.

Lake City finished 14-13.

Inconsistent play plagued the Vikings in the first two games of a 3-2 loss to Highland. After a win in the third game, a 6-0 run in the fourth – capped by Shelby Robb’s short-set kill – put them up 18-12 on the way to a 2-all tie.

The Vikings battled to a 6-all tie in the final game before the Rams took over.

CdA coach Carly Curtis, whose roster contained just three seniors, summed up her team’s effort and looked ahead to next season.

“Right now, it goes back to maturity level and being able to handle the pressure,” Curtis said. “Right now, we’re still struggling with that – we have teams that will panic under pressure and we work on that every year in the off-season, so when we get in those pressure situations, we don’t freak out, but remain calm.”

CdA finished 19-8.