Lake City defeats Sandpoint in five
—Photo by ROGER BRANSCOME<br>The Sandpoint girls volleyball team took the Lake City Timberwolves down to the wire in a best-of-five match Tuesday in Sandpoint.
SANDPOINT — The momentum flip-flopped several times Tuesday night, but in the end Lake City clinched its first Inland Empire League championship by edging Sandpoint 18-25, 25-23, 14-25, 25-21, 15-12.
"Sandpoint gave us everything we could handle and almost a little more than we could handle," said Lake City coach Kent Scanlon. "This is the first time in league that we've been pushed to five games and each one of them were very scary."
Lake City (10-0, 11-2) was led by Lauren Stern's 10 kills, 29 assists and seven digs. Kristia Tuntland had 11 kills and seven digs, while Rene Bordelon scored four aces and Amy Lawson earned four blocks.
"I was very pleased that we got to the fifth game, but then Sandpoint jumped out 6-0," he said. "We then had a couple of things go our way, we mounted a good attack and all of a sudden we were on top. I'm just pleased that we were able to hang in there and respond when the going wasn't going that well for us."
Senior Kelsey James led the Bulldogs with 14 kills, 27 digs, 18 assists, four blocks and four aces. Caitlyn Free had 12 kills and four blocks, Ketti Wherle earned 36 digs and Amy Bradetich finished with 18 assists.
"I think the girls played very well," said Sandpoint coach Tiwi Nicks. "But there were a lot of momentum shifts in this match, we just need to figure out how to maintain it."
Sandpoint (4-4, 11-6) plays the Bears in Moscow on Thursday.