Colville off to fast start

September 12, 2012

CHS setter Leanna Carr exults a big point with teammates Jessie Glidewell and Joellee Buckner. Lisa Carr photo.

Indians dominate Lakeland Invite

Colville High’s defending 1A volleyball champions dominated last Saturday’s high-powered Lakeland Invitational (Rathdrum, Idaho) volleyball tournament. It was Colville’s second straight Lakeland Invitational title.
The Indians, who ran roughshod over their own Jamboree back on Sept. 4 to start the season, won the Gold division (highest level) of the tournament. Colville, who beat Lakeside 25-13, 25-5 and Lewiston 25-17, 25-16 in pool play, downed St. Maries 25-13, 25-12 in the first round of Gold Division play before beating Lake City (Coeur d’ Alene) 25-21, 25-17 in the title match-up.
In the Silver Division title match-up, Lewiston beat Reardan, a participant in last Tuesday’s Colville Jamboree and the defending State 2B volleyball champions, 25-17, 25-22.

Cheney gets bronze

In the Bronze Division, fellow Great Northern League rival Cheney beat Kamiah 25-21, 25-9 in the championship match.
CHS head coach Missy Bennett was pleased with her team’s play at both Lakeland and at home on Sept. 4.
“I gave them a (grade of) nine (out of 10 for their performance), only because I don’t give out 10’s this early in the season,” Bennett said of the veteran Indians’ performance in Idaho. But we played very well there and we played a little better in the jamboree. Our field there was much stronger this year.”
In the field at the Colville Jamboree were Deer Park, Mt. Sentinel (South Slocan, B.C.) and Reardan.
Colville downed fellow GNL member Deer Park 25-10, 25-5 and blasted the Canadians 25-6, 25-13 before easing past another very good Reardan team, 25-5, 25-11.
“We played very well against Reardan,” Bennett said. “We were ready to play somebody besides ourselves (in practice). We were primed for Reardan.
“It was just a well-rounded, well-balanced effort (at the Jamboree)…a really great team effort.”
This Indians’ volleyball team has (arguably) more firepower than any Colville volleyball team ever has. It was on impressive display last week.
In those three Jamboree matches, Colville had 77 kills. The team accumulated 30 ace serves (yes, for you math majors out there, that’s a whopping 10 a match).
“Serving is a huge part of our success and we served very well,” Bennett said, adding that “our attack and strong serving led to a lot of offense. That tended to shut down the other team’s options.”
At Lakeland, it was more firepower and solid serving on display. Leanna Carr (Benchwarmer’s Athlete of the Week), Sadie Learn, Joellee and Aubrey Buckner, Jacy Vining and Tyra Brons all had runs of 10 serves or more.
“That’s pretty amazing in rally scoring,” Bennett pointed out.

Serve Receive solid

“For the early season, we were very sharp. And we did a very good job of passing serve. The serve receive was really strong…it means we passed serve really well.”
THIS WEEK
Colville will host Cheney on Thursday at 7 p.m.