Cardinals move closer to SWAC title, hosting regionals
<p>North Idaho College's Fei Gao goes up for a shot above the stretched out arms of Alyssa Everett from College of Southern Idaho during Saturday's game.</p>
<p>North Idaho College's Kyona Hunt lunges for a ball just out of reach during Saturday's game against the College of Southern Idaho.</p>
COEUR d’ALENE — Saturday’s Scenic West Athletic Conference volleyball match between the sixth-ranked North Idaho Cardinals and the 10th-ranked Southern Idaho Golden Eagles at Christianson Gym had the feel of a tournament match.
When the dust settled, it was NIC which battled back after taking the first two sets to defeat in-state rival CSI 28-26, 25-22, 18-25, 22-25, 15-8 to remain unbeaten in the SWAC.
NIC rallied from a 24-22 deficit in the first set on back-to-back kills from Tina Strahinic, eventually taking the lead 27-26 on a block by Danielle Hodge and closing out the set when CSI was called in the net. NIC went up two games on a block that went out of bounds to close out the second set.
“We came out confident and strong in the first and second games,” NIC coach Colleen Frohlich said. “I’ve got to give more credit to CSI in those third and fourth games.”
NIC holds a 2-game lead in the SWAC standings — plus the tiebreaker over CSI — with four matches to play, starting with Colorado Northwestern on Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Christianson Gym.
“Both teams knew what was on the line today,” Frohlich said. “In that fifth set, I told our team we are good enough to win. Be calm, relaxed and go get it. I was proud of the way we stuck it out.”
Sophomore Kaylee Ponce had 22 digs and nine kills for NIC (20-5, 6-0 SWAC).
“We took it one point at a time today,” Ponce said. “We played with a lot of heart today.”
CSI, the defending NJCAA champions, fell to 20-7, 4-2.
“This win is pretty huge for us,” Ponce said. “I think we’ll do pretty well the rest of the season, but need to continue to take it one step at a time.”
Tina Strahinic had 21 kills and 23 digs, Fei Gao had 17 kills, 26 digs and two blocks, Kyona Hunt had 30 digs and Esther Timofeyev had three aces for NIC.
“We put a lot of pressure on our outside hitters today (Strahinic and Geo),” Frohlich said. “I would have liked to see our middles get a few more hits today, but it’s a credit to what they’re doing on defense.”
Elisa Brochado had 13 kills and 15 digs, Jesse Dill had 13 kills, Alyssa Everett had six kills and Kianna Niu had 40 digs for CSI, which hosts Eastern Utah on Thursday.
“This team knows they can compete,” CSI coach Heidi Cartisser said. “We knew we weren’t going to get the calls up here, but we had to keep competing and that’s what we did. Elisa and Jesse are definitely our go-to players. They are consistently performing well and we always go to them when we need it. We just need to learn to finish matches.”