STATE 5A VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT: Coeur d'Alene, '14 runner-up, settles for fourth
POST FALLS — It seemed like nearly every key kill attempt, every block and every serve was either turned away or answered by the opponents of the Coeur d’Alene volleyball team, Centennial of Boise, in the losers’ bracket on Saturday at the state 5A volleyball tournament at Post Falls High.
While they had a healthy-sized 10 block-kills and played well overall, the Vikings without a doubt met their match in the Patriots, as they were eliminated, 20-25, 25-21, 13-25, 20-25. Coeur d’Alene (26-7), last year’s state runners-up, went 2-2 at state this year and received the fourth-place trophy.
Centennial had hitters who at times overwhelmed Coeur d’Alene, firing laser-like hits that found an open gym floor.
“Centennial kept us out of our system,” Coeur d’Alene coach Dee Pottenger said. “So we weren’t able to run our middles as much as we were able to during the rest of the tournament. Centennial is a good team. I’m really proud of our team. But it makes it a little bit easier losing to a team, a strong team who earned their points. I think the competition was tough. I think serving and passing (of our opponents) was key to serve this stuff to keep us out of system and we passed the ball really well in the tournament to bring it to this offense. I think our blocking stood out as a strength of our team and our girls worked really hard.”
In the second game the Vikings won, senior outside hitter Missy Huddleston got in a groove early on to deliver three kills in a five-point stretch. With the Vikings fighting for its survival after going down 1-0, the 6-foot Huddleston put down another hard ace for a 24-21 lead, then finished off the game-winning point after she fell to the side, smiling the entire time.
Huddleston led all hitters with 21 kills, followed by setter/hitter Ali Williams with 15. Williams did an admirable job helping pick up the slack following the absence of Megan Ramseyer, the University of Idaho recruit who was lost for the season early in the year with a torn ACL.
Isabella Hollibaugh had 21 assists, followed by Williams with 20. Senior libero Maura Donovan had 13 digs, and Huddleston and Hollibaugh each had 10.
“We just had to make adjustments with the sets,” Williams said. “I feel like we could’ve done better, but I feel like they have a lot of good girls who are really smart.”
Cd’A junior middle blocker Sydney Bybee had three blocks, while fighting a sprained left ankle the 6-foot-1 player suffered in a practice before the tournament. Huddleston was also out for two weeks with an ankle injury suffered early this season.
“It was good, considering the adversity we had this year,” Bybee said. “Our team blocking was phenomenal. They were a fantastic team, they had a lot of weapons, as do we. We played hard, we just needed to minimize our errors.”
Centennial (16-6) saw Savannah Ipsen, a senior right side hitter, finish with 14 kills, 6-foot-3 middle blocker Allison O’Harra had 12 kills and Mekenzie Miller had nine kills. Outside of the fact Huddleston and Williams pounded in quite a few balls on attacks, the three were mostly responsible for several kills and blocks that answered the two Vikings’ hard hits.
“We really played well together as a team,” Ipsen said. “Our energy was really good; often times we’ll get points and shut the other team down.”
And that they did, with Ipsen flying in the air to deliver the kill on match point.