Lakeland fourth for first trophy at state since 1988
JASON ELLIOTT/Press Lakeland junior Daphne Carroll atttemps to tip the ball over the block of Century’s Lexi Bull, No. 11, and Ashley Harris, No. 4, during play in the state 4A volleyball tournament at Coeur d’Alene High. Lakeland finished fourth in the tournament.
JASON ELLIOTT/Press Lakeland junior Katy Ryan and sophomore Bethany Johnson (14) go up for a block during the first set of Saturday’s match against Century of Pocatello in the state 4A tournament at Coeur d’Alene High.
JASON ELLIOTT/Press Lakeland High senior Jenny Wirtz celebrates after being presented the fourth-place trophy in the state 4A volleyball tournament by tournament director Mike Randles on Saturday at Coeur d’Alene High.
COEUR d’ALENE — Junior Daphne Carroll knew in eighth grade that she’d be part of a special group of Lakeland volleyball players.
Saturday, she got the evidence in the form of the Hawks’ first trophy from the state tournament since they tied for second in the A-2 tourney in 1988.
Carroll had 16 kills, nine digs and three aces for the Hawks, who lost to the defending champion Century Diamondbacks of Pocatello 25-20, 25-20, 25-17 to finish fourth in the state 4A tournament at Coeur d’Alene High on Saturday morning.
“I’ve always had faith in us,” Carroll said. “I knew that our class was going to be the ones to change the program. I’m so grateful for this team. I just love playing with these guys. The relationships we’ve made are going to last forever.”
Lakeland finished 19-12 in coach Kelsie Badger’s second season.
“I told the girls from day one that we’re going to state this year,” Badger said. “I said we’ve got to work for it, and work hard, but I believe in you guys and we’re going to state. I said it once, and they believed it. Nobody brought it back up, and really after we won at Moscow (Oct. 8), it didn’t get brought up until we finished out league and beat Sandpoint (Oct. 10). We realized we were going, and we’re going to do this and the girls believed in themselves all year. We worked hard in practice, and pushed them to make it here. I couldn’t be more pleased. Fourth is awesome. I’m super happy with that.”
Junior Katy Ryan, a verbal commit to Washington State, had 17 kills, four blocks and three aces for Lakeland.
“It feels awesome,” Ryan said. “It’s kind of hard to end the season on a loss like that. But just remembering all the work we put into it (Friday), and how hard we fought to get here, that’s what counts. At the start of the year, we were thinking about Moscow and Sandpoint, and what we could do to beat them. That’s what we focused on from the first practice and started working toward a district title. Every mistake we made got us to this point.”
On Friday night, Lakeland had to rally from two sets down to beat Burley in a loser-out match. Century, winners of seven state titles from 2010-18, later advanced to the state title match against Bonneville of Idaho Falls, finishing runner-up.
“Century’s a pretty big school, and we’re in the smaller of the 4A schools,” Badger said. “We’ve got our own challenges with size, but this is a great group of girls. The height of that team (Century) was amazing, and we knew they were going to be good, but we just had to fight harder. Our girls worked hard all year and deserve this.”
Junior Abbey Neff had 26 assists, sophomore Bethany Johnson five blocks, senior Keely DeVore 13 digs, senior Madison Van Gelder three blocks and junior Olivia Cooper 18 digs for Lakeland.