5A REGION 1 VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: Lake City serves notice
<p>JAKE PARRISH/Press Lake City's Ashley Kaufman, left, celebrates with her team after scoring the game-winning ace at the 5A Region 1 championship match against Lewiston at Lake City High School. Kaufman scored five aces total.</p>
<p>JAKE PARRISH/Press Lake City's Tessa Sarff goes for the kill over Meg Woods, left, and Madison Stoddard of Lewiston during the 5A Region 1 championship game on Tuesday at Lake City High School.</p>
COEUR d’ALENE — The final serve of the match went careening off the arms of a Lewiston player and toward the back wall, which was only fitting on this night.
The Bengals had a hard time dealing with the serves of Lake City High sophomore Ashley Kaufman all night.
Kaufman recorded five aces, and gave Lewiston fits with several other of her topspin floater serves, and the top-seeded Timberwolves swept the third-seeded Bengals 25-22, 25-19, 25-18 in the championship match of the 5A Region 1 tournament Tuesday night at Lake City.
“I don’t know, it was just on today,” Kaufman said of her serve. “It looked like it was moving a little more.”
Lake City (22-1) advances to state Oct. 28-29 at Skyline High in Idaho Falls.
Lewiston (24-8) will play host to fourth-seeded Post Falls (19-15) on Thursday in the second-place match, with the winner advancing to a state play-in match Saturday in Grangeville. Post Falls upset No. 2 seed Coeur d’Alene (17-11) in a loser-out match Tuesday night.
It was the first regional title since 2011 for Lake City, a young squad with one senior, five juniors, four sophomores and two freshmen on the roster.
“This entire season we’ve worked with a sports psychologist, Doug Ratelle,” first-year Lake City coach Jenna Leggat said. “He focuses on the process, staying focused on the process, staying focused on the little things, and then the big things take care of themselves. And I feel like this group of girls, this season, has done just that. And they did just that.”
For as effective as her serving was, Kaufman was even more happy with her hitting, as the outside hitter totaled a match-high 14 kills. She said she attributed it to “staying relaxed, and not getting too frustrated.” Another sophomore, Tessa Sarff, added nine kills. Sophomore Klaire Mitchell had 36 assists, Ashley Reyes and Reilley Chapman 13 digs, Kaitlin Hunter two blocks.
Leggat said Kaufman’s serves were “dynamite,” but said all the pieces tied together.
“We made a little adjustment yesterday in practice,” Leggat said. “A couple things, defensively, for her ... but it’s just her mental state, and that proved right there, she can do that every time she goes back to serve.”
Lake City took a 12-8 lead in the first set on back-to-back aces from Kaufman. Lewiston came back to take a 20-18 lead, but another tough serve from Kaufman put the T-Wolves back on top 21-20, and junior Chloe Knudson sealed the first set with a tip kill from the back row.
Kaufman had seven kills in the second set, smashing the final one off the block on set point. Sarff, a middle/right side hitter, had four of her kills in the final set. Lake City trailed 10-7 before Kaufman served the T-Wolves into a 12-10 lead, and the hosts never trailed the rest of the way.
“I think we were a little bit of both — nervous and confident,” coming into the match, Kaufman said.
Lake City’s lone loss this season came to Lewiston in a season-opening tournament at Lewiston in August, in a best-of-three-set match.
“We didn’t show up,” Lewiston coach Kelly Harwick said. “They’re a really good team, but we didn’t just play as well as we have been playing. It wasn’t their serving so much as our passing; we needed to be on and we weren’t.”
Lewiston got most of its offense out of its middle blockers, with sophomore Kendyll Kinzer and junior Madison Stoddard leading the way with five kills each.
Post Falls d. Coeur d’Alene: Macky Morris had 15 kills and 10 digs and the visiting Trojans won the final three sets to eliminate the Vikings 13-25, 17-25, 25-18, 27-25, 15-12.
Allison Munday had 13 kills and four aces for Post Falls. Courtney Finney and Kayla Mayo each had 19 assists, Cassidy Jackson had seven blocks, Brittany Deitz six.
“We had a great team effort tonight,” Post Falls coach Matt Barkley said. “Our backs were against the wall and we kept fighting. I am so proud of how well we played tonight.”
Ali Williams had 17 kills, 18 assists and two blocks for Coeur d’Alene, which finished fourth at state last year. Kelly Horning had 13 kills and two blocks, Delaney Schmidt 13 kills, Isabella Hollibaugh 24 assists and six digs, Sam Swayze 16 digs, Elly Schraeder five blocks.
“We’ve battled with Post Falls each set we’ve played them this year,” Coeur d’Alene coach Dee Pottenger said. “It’s tough to beat the same team three times in a season. Post Falls earned the win tonight. I’m sure disappointed, especially for our seniors.”