4A Region 1 volleyball championship: Moscow denies Lakeland again

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

RATHDRUM — Not again!

Yes, again.

For the second straight year, the top-seeded Lakeland Hawks played host to the second-seeded Moscow Bears in the 4A Region 1 volleyball championship match, with the winner advancing to state and the loser’s season over.

And for the second straight year, Moscow stunned Lakeland in five sets.

This year, the Bears won 22-25, 25-23, 22-25, 25-19, 15-11 on Thursday night at Hawk Court. Moscow (10-8) to state next Friday and Saturday at Thunder Ridge High in Idaho Falls.

Lakeland, which won the state 4A title in 2020 but hasn’t been back to state since, finishes 17-9.

“Volleyball is definitely a momentum game, and the shift definitely wasn’t in our court,” Lakeland coach Kelsie Badger said.

In the fourth and fifth set, Moscow “hit the ball better than us,” she added. “Great defense; it was our hitters that couldn’t put the ball away.”

Lakeland and Moscow came in ranked eighth and ninth, respectively, in the final regular season MaxPreps rankings, which are used to seed the eight state tournament teams in each classification.

Senior Kenna Simon had 10 digs, sophomore Ziya Munyer 11 blocks for Lakeland. Junior Ella Terzulli had 27 assists and three aces, senior Ellie Carlson 41 digs.

Moscow has a well-balanced attack. Lakeland appeared to have the edge in power, but the Bears negated that with tremendous defense.

“They have great defense; 100 percent hands-down, they have awesome defense,” Badger said of Moscow. “That’s part of it. And we were solely relying on our middles to do everything tonight, and we didn’t have much of an option anywhere else.”

Also …

“Unfortunately some girls have had the tummy bug at the wrong time, and some girls were feeling under the weather tonight, and it is what it is,” Badger added.

Senior Morgan Claus, daughter of Bears coach Toni Claus, had 32 digs. Senior Mikayla Gilkey added 31 digs, senior Maecie Robbins 29 digs, senior Sam Unger 20 digs.

That’s 112 digs, just from four players alone.

“When we came in here, we knew that’s what we had to do, is play defense so we could stay with this team,” eighth-year Moscow coach Toni Claus said. “They’re very good at hitting, and we knew defense was probably going to win the games, and we just keep chipping our way back over.”

Gilkey had 17 kills, Claus 16 kills, junior Taylor Broenneke 13 kills for Moscow, and Unger had 50 assists.

Lakeland jumped out in the first set to leads of 15-7 and 16-10. Moscow took a 20-19 lead, before Munyer tied it with a kill, and Simon ended the first set on a quick-set kill.

Moscow jumped out to an 11-4 lead in the second set. Lakeland fought back and took a 23-22 lead on a kill down the line by Addie Raebel. But Moscow scored the next three points, on kills from freshman Jessa Skinner, Claus and Broenneke.

Lakeland won the third set, then Moscow broke from a 14-all tie to square the match.

In the deciding set, Skinner had a stuff block, then a kill, then Gilkey scored on a roll shot for a 13-8 Moscow lead. Lakeland pulled within 14-11 on a stuff-block by Munyer, but the Hawks hit into the net on match point.

“We’re proud of our students,” Toni Claus said. “Our students wanted to come up here so we gave them the bus and had our parents bring the players. It was awesome.”