THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Spreading out the workload at state volleyball

It happens almost every year, on the Friday night at state volleyball. 

A team wins its opener and drops its second match — or loses its opener and wins a loser-out match — necessitating a third match that night. 

Win or lose that third match, the team looks like it has been through the wringer — the cumulative toll of playing three matches (and as many as 15 sets) in the span of just a few hours. 

If you looked at the players after that third match, sprawled out on the court, you couldn’t tell if they had won or lost that match. 

If the team won, its reward is another match on Saturday at 9 a.m., with the possibility of four more matches that day. 

Lose, and you can sleep in — your season is over. 

“It is a really long day, that first day, if you lose at any point,” said Michelle Kleinberg, who has taken Lake City High to state twice in her four seasons as Timberwolves coach. “That third match is intense, and the risk of injury is higher.” 

This year, for the first time, the Idaho High School Activities Association has stretched out the state volleyball tournament from two to three days. Each team will play once on Thursday, hopefully lightening the load on Friday and Saturday. 

“Love it; I actually love it,” said Carly Curtis, who has taken Coeur d’Alene to state eight times in her 13 seasons as Vikings coach. “We pushed for it for a full year. You’re playing back-to-back five-set matches, and to put an athlete through that ... that expectation is unreal.” 

AFTER EXHAUSTIVE research (translation: I got tired) over the past 10 state volleyball tournaments, four times has Coeur d’Alene played three matches on that Friday, the first day of state. 

In 2015, the Vikings lost their opener, then won their second and third matches that day — then lost Saturday morning and finished fourth. 

The next three times, Coeur d’Alene lost that Friday night match and was eliminated. Most recently, in 2023, the Vikings lost 3-1 to Rocky Mountain, beat Timberline 3-1 and was eliminated by Eagle 3-1. 

“I think it (spreading out the tournament) is going to give us a true picture of what everybody’s team is,” Curtis said. 

LAKE CITY has also played the Friday “tripleheader” four times in the last 10 years, the last two under Kleinberg, a former T-Wolf assistant. 

In 2019, Lake City made it to Saturday, but lost that morning to Skyview, and finished fourth. 

In 2022, the T-Wolves swept Owyhee, lost 3-1 to Post Falls, then beat Thunder Ridge in five sets. 

The next morning, Lake City lost 3-1 to Timberline and finished fourth. 

“It’s grueling,” Kleinberg said. “And even if you make it through ... we had nothing left in the tank against Timberline.” 

LAKELAND HAS had the long Friday twice under coach Kelsie Badger, in her seventh season as Hawks coach.  

In 2019, Lakeland played 13 of a possible 15 sets on Friday, beating Burley in five sets in its third match of the day. On Saturday morning, the Hawks were swept by Century of Pocatello. 

(In 2020, when Lakeland won its only state title, the tourney was modified due to COVID-19, using the same format as basketball does and baseball did — single-elimination with a consolation bracket. The Hawks won twice on Friday and had to play just once on Saturday, in the winner-take-all championship match.) 

Last year, Lakeland swept Canyon Ridge, was swept by Skyview and beat Skyline 3-1 on Friday, then was swept by Bonneville on Saturday and finished fourth. 

“No feeling either way,” Badger said of the change in format. “It will be nice to play on one court at a time (Friday usually features two matches at a time, on side-by-side courts). We’ve played the three (on Friday) and battled back. These girls are used to doing long tournaments in club volleyball. I don’t feel it fazed us.” 

POST FALLS played three times on Friday in 2021, including a pair of five-setters. The Trojans swept Lake City, then lost to Madison of Rexburg in five, then beat Thunder Ridge in five. 

The next morning, the Trojans lost 3-1 to Eagle and were eliminated. 

Matt Barkley, in the first season of his second stint as Trojans head coach, remembered the 2017 state tourney, during his first stint as coach. On that first day, Post Falls lost to Eagle in five sets, swept Centennial and lost in five to Madison. 

“We were exhausted by the end of the day,” Barkley recalled. “This (new format) should make it a lot less stressful.”

THE COMMON denominator in all this — none of these teams who played three times on Friday made it past the first match on Saturday, where they would have played for third in the next match and, if they won that match, played for the championship (needing to win twice for the title, of course). 

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking — “Just don’t lose.” 

That’s ideal, of course. But the tourney is double-elimination, after all, and even though teams that lose should be “punished” by having to play more, this format might give them a better chance to make it all the way back to the championship round. 

We shall see in early November. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.