'Gives us a little more fire': Back at state volleyball for second straight year, Coeur d'Alene taking underdog approach
By MARK NELKE
Sports editor
Gracie Legg had a rough first day of volleyball tryouts at Coeur d’Alene High this season.
Not only did the returning senior libero get sick on that first day, she also tore cartilage in her knee during a drill.
Legg was diagnosed with pneumonia in her left lung. Between her illness and her injury, she missed the first month of the season, but is back in her usual role of wearing a jersey a different color from her teammates.
In her absence, sophomore Bridget Maiani stepped in at libero. When Legg returned, Maiani shifted to defensive specialist, and was on the court when Coeur d’Alene won its second straight regional championship last year.
“Bridget did a really good job,” Legg said.
“She’s playing some really good defense,” senior setter Lizzy Hardy added.
Coeur d’Alene (26-6) is the sixth seed to this week’s state 6A volleyball tournament at the Mountain America Center in Idaho Falls. The Vikings play in the tourney opener Thursday at noon PDT vs. third seed Owyhee (26-4) of Meridian.
Last year at this time, senior middle blocker Aiva Reed played at the end of the season on the Coeur d’Alene junior varsity team, after having surgery for a torn meniscus.
“I was watching their districts game,” Reed said of the Viking varsity. “We had just finished JV regionals. I was thinking I have to work really hard, but I want to be there next year.”
This year, Reed was big in the middle on a Viking varsity team headed to state for the fifth time in seven seasons.
“She was a big impact as a strong middle,” Coeur d’Alene coach Carly Curtis said.
Coeur d’Alene lost some key players from last year’s state team, including two middles and an outside hitter, that finished tied for fifth.
But several key players returned, including senior outside hitter Paisley Goings, a four-year starter.
“I think last year we entered really franticly, and it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re playing big teams from the South,” said Goings, whose Vikings were at state for the first time since 2020. “So I think this year we’ll go in focusing on our mindset and our game, and not worrying about how big the hitters on the other side of the net are.”
“We’re all in it to play together,” senior right side hitter Kaydence Green said. “We all have the same goal, we’re all mentally strong. We made goals at the beginning of the season, and everybody wants to meet them.”
As for other newcomers, Curtis said sophomore Kaylee Paulson “really stepped it up on the outside.”
Junior Gianna Callari, who also plays on the Viking soccer team in the fall, was a force at times as a hitter last year.
This year, she’s even more dominant.
“I think she got more confident,” Curtis said. “She got her volleyball IQ all dialed in; she did a good job in the offseason of really improving her game.”
“I love her as a hitter,” said Hardy, who sets a 6-2 offense with either sophomore Hannah Shafer or junior Bevin Green as the other setter. “She’s very loud ... you can always tell when she’s on the court. She’s very easy to set; she always manages to put it away, no matter if the set’s bad or not."
Coeur d’Alene went to tournaments in the Boise area and eastern Idaho this year. And while the Vikings didn’t face anyone who eventually qualified for state, Curtis said it was good for her team to get comfortable with traveling, particulartly to eastern Idaho.
Curtis, in two stints as head coach at her alma mater, is taking the Vikings to state for the ninth time in her 14 seasons as coach.
Coeur d’Alene’s last trophy from state was in 2020, when the Vikings finished third. Coeur d’Alene won its only state title in 1987 under Kent Scanlon; the Vikings were second in 2014 under Dee Pottenger.
“I’m OK with a low seed; it makes us an underdog and gives us a little more fire,” she said.
MARK NELKE/Press Coeur d'Alene junior Gianna Callari (11) hits past Lake City sophomore Camryn Woodman (1) in the 6A District 1 championship match last Tuesday at Lake City.