NIC rallies, dumps CSI

COEUR d’ALENE — For the 11th-ranked North Idaho Cardinals volleyball team, it was better late than never in the home opener Saturday at Christianson Gymnasium.

After falling in the first two games, the Cardinals battled back to win the final three to defeat the third-ranked Southern Idaho Golden Eagles 23-25, 18-25, 26-24, 25-15, 15-11 in a Scenic West Athletic Conference match.

CSI scored the final two points in the first game and led by as many as 12 points at 20-8 in the second.

“I thought we started out playing great,” NIC coach Kandice Kelly said. “I didn’t know what to tell them in the second game. It was like we folded up and nothing was working.”

During the 10-minute intermission between the second and third games, Kelly found the words she was looking for.

“I chewed them a little,” Kelly said. “Every player in the locker room was talking about what they could do better in the next game. After losing in five at Salt Lake, it was our turn to do it. Everyone played a huge role in this today.”

Yang Yang, a middle blocker from China, led NIC with 20 kills.

“We wanted to win this match,” Yang said. “I’m so happy right now. Our coach is very smart and we were too tight after the first game. It was exciting to come back and win.”

“Yang just hits everywhere and anywhere,” Kelly said. “I told everyone to step it up and get the kills that we could over the body.”

Janele Vogt had 12 kills, Mariah Smith 11 kills, Sierra Pancho 52 assists and Brooklyn Bradbury four aces for NIC (13-7, 2-1 SWAC), which hosts Carroll College in a nonconference match on Tuesday.

In the fifth game, the momentum shifted as a return hit by CSI deflected off the scoreboard hanging over the center of the court and fell to the floor to give NIC an 8-6 lead. The scoreboard portion of the overhang will be removed in time for Thursday’s match against Colorado Northwestern in Coeur d’Alene, and a new scoreboard on the stage end of the gym is expected to be operational by then, school officials said.

“The last two games have came down to the fifth game,” Kelly said. “In our conference, every match is going to be like this. It was awesome to come back and win.”

Sabrina Ewing, a sophomore from Coeur d’Alene Charter, had 11 kills and an ace in the fifth game to help NIC win.

“It’s awesome,” said Ewing of beating third-ranked CSI. “Hopefully this sets us up for more wins in the conference.”

Ewing had been getting substituted for by Kendall Bergsten when serving on Saturday, but remained in during the fifth game.

“It was surprising because I don’t hit too many serves,” Ewing said. “I knew what I had to do and it worked.”

Keani Passi had 16 kills and Emily Ottinger 13 kills for CSI (13-6, 2-1).

“We stuck to our game plan in the first two games,” CSI coach Heidi Cartisser said. “We should have been able to put them away in the third game, but they got hot and we started to make some mental errors and NIC stuck to their game plan.”

CSI, which won at Salt Lake last week, had 13 serving errors in the match, compared to 10 for NIC, which fell at Salt Lake last week.

“We didn’t serve as aggressive as we had been in the last three games and our blocking didn’t pick it up,” Cartisser said. “We’ll take it as a learning experience. This game is all about the momentum and we didn’t pressure them back. We’ll take this as learning and get ready for them down at our place.”

Ashia Joseph had 44 assists and Heather Meeuswen had 17 digs for CSI.

The teams meet again Oct. 22 in Twin Falls.