Hawks good as gold

RATHDRUM — Led by senior Sydney Singer, the Lakeland Hawks rushed to collected their hardware after a hard-fought volleyball victory.

They gathered around the trophy, and stared at it quizically.

And who could blame them?

None of them were in school — and some of them hadn’t even been born — the last time Lakeland won a district or regional title in volleyball.

That all changed Thursday night, when the Hawks defeated the Moscow Bears 25-21, 25-14, 23-25, 25-17 in the 4A Region 1 championship match at Hawk Court.

It was Lakeland’s first trophy since 2002, when the Hawks won the 3A District 1 title in their second-to-last year in the Intermountain League.

And Lakeland is headed to state for the first time since 2005, the Hawks’ second year in 4A.

“I knew that we could do it,” said junior right side hitter Katy Ryan, who finished with 21 kills and six blocks. “It’s been fun; we have a really close team. I just knew if we played our best, we’d win. And we did. All day I was really nervous, but as soon as we started playing, I was like, ‘all right, let’s just get it done.’”

Lakeland (17-10) advances to the state 4A tournament Nov. 1-2 at Coeur d’Alene High. The Hawks open Friday, Nov. 1 at 11 a.m. vs. the District 4-5 runner-up.

“It just seems like all my hard work has paid off — and not just my hard work, but everybody else’s,” said junior outside hitter Daphne Carroll, who totaled 14 kills, four aces and seven digs. “And we couldn’t have done it without our coach (Kelsie Badger) for sure. Our coach pushes us every single day — every practice we have is not an easy practice, and that’s what makes us better.”

Bethany Johnson, a sophomore middle blocker, added six kills and five blocks for Lakeland. Junior Abbey Neff had 32 assists, junior libero Olivia Cooper 17 digs, senior Keely DeVore eight digs, senior middle blocker Sarah Pope three blocks.

“This is incredible,” said Badger, in her second year as head coach, and a Hawks’ assistant prior to last season. “The girls have been working so hard. Bethany, as a sophomore, did awesome tonight. Katy had a phenomenal game. Olivia Cooper, defense, serve-receive, she was just on point tonight. Abbey, working as hard as she does, and just getting the sets to everyone, she just did awesome. So proud of them; they worked hard, and it paid off.”

After winning a tight first set in the winner-to-state, loser-out regional final, Lakeland rolled through the second set. Late in the set, Johnson pounded down an overfeed, then followed with a quick-set kill on the next point.

Lakeland jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the third set, but Moscow (15-7) averted the sweep by rallying from a 21-15 deficit late.

Leading 13-11 in the fourth set, Lakeland pulled away on four straight kills from the 6-foot-4, lefty-swinging Ryan, who has verbally committed to play at Washington State.

First, she pounded down a back set from Neff. That was followed by a power tip over the block for a point. Then she cranked one cross-court from the right side for a kill, to an open space were there were no Bear defenders. Then a nice dig from a Hawk teammate looped over to Ryan, who slammed the ball off the block for another kill.

“It brings us up so much,” Carroll said, when Ryan makes a big play. “It literally boosts the momentum that we already had. It’s crazy; and then the student section goes wild.”

Addisen Kiefer, a sophomore outside hitter who also had a productive hitting night, belted one off the block for a 21-12 Hawk lead. A kill from Carroll on the outside ended the match.

Since the creation of 4A in 2000, Sandpoint had won every regional title except for in 2004, ’05, ’15 and ’17, when Moscow won. When Lakeland advanced to state in ’05, it was via the play-in route.

Sophomore middle blocker Izzy Burns had 13 kills for Moscow, a young squad like Lakeland that figures to be back in the mix next season.