Schools set out for southern glory

For those teams qualifying for this year’s state volleyball tournaments, there are no second chances.

During the summer, the Idaho High School Activities Association passed a decision to change the double-elimination format to a single-loss and elimination from championship contention.

“It makes a big difference,” St. Maries coach Missy Asbury said. “We didn’t get to practice in the big gym at Bonneville before we played. It would have benefited us to practice there before we played our first match. We lost our first match the last time down south. In a single-elimination tournament, you need to be able to start off strong.”

Should a team lose its first match, they are eliminated from championship contention.

“We’re basically playing each match like it’s the state championship game,” Asbury said. “Once you let your guard down, the other team will take advantage of your mistakes.”

Post Falls went 1-2 last season in the 5A tournament at Lake City High, winning its first match against Centennial before losing to Eagle and Borah.

All tournaments begin Friday. Championship matches in each classification will be held Saturday night.

Post Falls: The Trojans enter this week’s state 5A tournament as the top seed from Region 1 after defeating Lake City in Saturday’s championship match.

Post Falls (28-6) faces Boise (15-15) in its state opener at 9 a.m. PDT at Canyon Ridge High in Twin Falls. Eagle returns to defend its 5A title and could meet the Trojans in the second round.

Post Falls graduated five starters from last year’s team, which qualified for state for the first time since 1991, and currently has two seniors on their roster. Brianna Friebe is out with a broken foot, leaving only Kat Clancy as the only senior for Post Falls.

“You can look at it both ways,” Post Falls coach Willow Hanna said. “We’ve got five returners that went to state last year and both Allison (Meehan) and Ashley (Jibby) came off the bench. We’ve got some key returners that weren’t playing a bunch. It’s exciting to get back to the state tournament. We’ve got three sophomores and three juniors on the court.”

Junior setter/right side hitter Tori Bertsch is the lone returning starter from last year’s team.

St. Maries: “I’ve been pretty much trying to get them to go into the tournament level-headed,” Asbury said. “They know there’s a lot expected of them, but we’re going into the match ready to play.”

The Lumberjacks (24-5) return four starters from last year’s state 3A championship team and open against Bear Lake at Wendell High at noon PDT.

“I think it will definitely help,” Asbury said. “There are quite a few teams from last year with at least three or four back. It’s going to be a little different this year.”

Kimberly, Snake River and Bear Lake are among those expected to challenge for the ’Jacks’ throne.

“Once you’ve played against a team, you kind of know what to expect,” Asbury said. “It’s a benefit to have a lot of the same teams back from last season. We’re also aware that the teams are going to key on Marlee (Masterson) and Mariah (Gladden), so our other hitters will have to step up.”

Timberlake: The Tigers return to the 3A tournament for the first time since 2005, when they finished third at Coeur d’Alene High. Timberlake (20-8) faces Snake River at Wendell High at 9 a.m. PDT.

“We’ve had a lot of girls that have been playing club ball during the offseason,” Timberlake coach Michelle Garwood said. “They’ve all received really good coaching and when you’ve got a group of girls that have been playing more, it makes a big difference.”

“We’re not just happy with being there,” she added.

Garwood said the team began to turn the corner during a tournament at Genesee, in which they finished second to the host school, a 1A Division I state qualifier.

“The girls did a good job in the Genesee tournament,” Garwood said. “The girls played hard. Genesee is a good team, but I think the girls realized that we can compete against anybody. In our final home match with St. Maries, we played well against them and they realized we could do this.”

Timberlake will count on a rotation of players for its success this week.

“In the past, you could say that we’ve had 2 or 3 good players we could count on,” Garwood said. “But we’ve got a lot of depth on the team. I don’t know if just one single player could do it for us. Our setter Brooke (Murray) has done a great job. Kelly (Madsen) has been playing really well at middle blocker. Amanda (Swanson) has been playing well in the back row. We’ve had a lot of different players that play well. We have a good team.”

Outside of IML rival St. Maries, Garwood hasn’t seen much on the other six teams.

“We’ve kind of been looking to see what Snake River is doing,” Garwood said. “I haven’t seen much about the other teams. Girls tend to get freaked out when you tell them the other team is unbeaten or have a strong outside hitter. We’ll just worry about our game and just take care of what we can. If we can play our defense and play our game, we’ll be OK.”

Lakeside: The Knights, who had never qualified for state prior to 2008, are back for the second time in three years. Two years ago, they went 0-2 at Kimberly High. Lakeside (12-1) faces Challis (17-2) in its 1A Division I opener at 2 p.m. PDT at Declo High.

Seniors Joelle Miller, Jennifer Mitchell, Maria Garcia and Kyndra McCully return from the Knights’ 2008 appearance.

“It will definitely help a lot,” Lakeside coach Jan Mitchell said. “All of our upperclassmen are the definite leaders on the team. It should be a big help with their confidence level. It really helps to know what they’re walking into. Hopefully they can handle it a lot better than before. Our girls are definitely wanting to come home with a trophy.”