Bulldogs can’t repeat
Sandpoint trudged through the consolation bracket all the way to the State 4A volleyball championship match Saturday evening, but the Bulldogs ran smack into a better team.
So in the end, Sandpoint coach Karen Alsager wasn’t dissatisfied.
“We came here to win this, but to be honest, I’m not disappointed because this is a fantastic team here,” Alsager said about Bonneville moments after the Bees denied the Bulldogs a repeat title with an emphatic 25-20, 18-25, 25-7, 25-20 win at Lake City High School.
Alsager added an addendum to her first comment.
“We’ll be back to do this again next year,” she said.
The fact Sandpoint (25-4) won four elimination matches, three on Saturday, after Rigby upset the Bulldogs in the first round was impressive enough. But gradually the Bulldogs started playing like the team that cruised through the regular season with just two losses.
Did Sandpoint run out of gas? No, Alsager said. She said that the Bulldogs simply lost to a better team.
To get to the final, though, Sandpoint topped Skyview 25-18, 23-25, 25-23, 30-28 in the first match Saturday and followed by sweeping Rigby 25-18, 25-21, 25-21 before outlasting Century 25-21, 25-27, 26-24, 19-25, 24-22. Upstart Rigby (24-20) took fourth, and Century (39-9) captured third.
Bonneville (39-4) sent Century into the consolation bracket when the Bees prevailed 25-12, 24-26, 25-23, 25-10 in the winner’s bracket semifinal.
Bees coach Chantal McMurtrey didn’t talk about exacting revenge after she watched her team fall to Sandpoint in the state final last year. But she emphasized that her team followed Sandpoint in the consolation bracket because the Bees didn’t want to face any other team in the title match.
“We lost to Sandpoint at state last year in three straight games twice and we really thought we had the players this year to get it done,” McMurtrey said. “I think we were pretty disappointed last year because we thought we could have competed a little better. Things just came together this year.”
The Bees left no doubt Saturday. After the teams each won a game, Bonneville cruised in the third game, scoring 14 straight points to open a 14-1 lead. The Bees extended the margin to 20-5 before they got an ace and a kill from Mailie Garner to close out the game.
Garner had a match-high 21 kills to go with 11 digs. Becky Burke added 12 kills despite fighting a sore swinging shoulder she nursed through the end of the season.
“I think our kids were pretty hungry, and they watched Sandpoint play a lot of volleyball today,” McMurtrey said. “We knew what they did and the kids felt confident they could take away their strengths. Piper Wahlin is a great hitter and we knew we needed to shut her down and we knew we needed to get the ball to our middles, and we did that.”
The Bees didn’t take all the sting out of Wahlin. She still managed to lead the Bulldogs with 14 kills, but they were spread out after she had a match-high 28 in the five-gamer against Century.
“The third game really surprised me,” McMurtrey said. “We’re a great serving team, but I did not expect to serve Sandpoint off the court like that. It’s not like them. I’m sure that was a factor.”
Garner said the Bees had a simple plan for the title match.
“We decided no mercy and we were going to leave it all on the court,” Garner said. “Sandpoint’s a great team and they’re real young. They play great for being young. We wanted to play them and we knew they’d give us a tough game. I’m glad they came back (through the consolation bracket).”
Sandpoint will lose just two seniors off a team with a richly talented sophomore core. But one of the key pieces that Alsager will have to replace is middle hitter Brooke DeMers, short at 5-6 but with big hops.
“The way we had to come back today through all of those games in the loser’s bracket, I thought we played really well,” DeMers said. “We played our best (against the Bees), but they were the better team. I thought they earned it. We accomplished so much today and we’re happy about that.”
“My gosh, if you’ve got to take second place to somebody it better be a fantastic team,” Alsager said of losing to Bonneville. “It was a long day, a long road. (I was impressed by) their determination to get to this final match. We had to get through Rigby and Century, and those are two good teams. It just seemed easier last year.”
“Century’s Diamondbacks took Sandpoint to the limit in the match for third place. In the final game, Century staved off six match points and had two opportunities itself to eliminate the Bulldogs before Wahlin put away a kill on the seventh match point.
As the Bulldogs waited to congratulate the Diamondbacks, sophomore setter Kortney James told a teammate, “I’m so tired.”
Sandpoint sophomore middle hitter Kaitlyn Lunde supported Wahlin’s 28 kills with 20 against Century.