Cards start 1-1 at Salt Lake tourney

SALT LAKE CITY - The 17th-ranked North Idaho College volleyball team split a pair of matches Friday on the opening day of the Salt Lake Community College tournament.

NIC rallied from two games down to beat Scenic West Athletic Conference foe College of Eastern Utah 20-25, 19-25, 25-21, 25-20, 15-8, then lost to third-ranked Western Wyoming 24-26, 25-10, 25-20, 25-23.

Freshman Yang Yang had 19 kills and 22 digs for NIC vs. Eastern Utah. Sabrina Ewing had 12 kills, Janele Vogt 10, and freshman setter Sierra Pancho had 38 assists and 14 digs.

"I was a little upset with how we started, but I was proud of them staying strong and pushing through," first-year NIC coach Kandice Kelly said. "We were making so many unforced errors. We had so many miscommunication errors, we finally started talking more and working more as a team. And they finally started smiling."

Yang had 16 kills and 15 digs vs. Western Wyoming. Mariah Smith added 12 kills, Emily Sarff had 12 digs and Pancho had 21 assists.

Kelly also raved about the play of Shelby Lausen, a 6-foot-3 freshman middle blocker from Strathmore, Alberta, who didn't play the first weekend because of a knee injury. She replaced freshman Emma Wolper, who suffered a fractured foot last weekend.

"She had a lot of big blocks at big times," Kelly said of Lausen.

NIC (2-4) concludes the tournament today, facing Northwest of Powell, Wyo., and No. 13 Northeastern Junior College of Sterling, Colo.