U-16 Rage earns Best of the West volleyball tournament title

SPOKANE — Out of 48 teams from the greater Inland Northwest competing, the Sandpoint U-16 Rage volleyball team won its division championship at the Best in the West volleyball tournament, April 17.

In pool play, Rage gave Spokane Storm (the tournament's No. 2 seed) a good match and then lost a tie-breaker with Strike Force Intensity before dominating Mountain One from Missoula.

After qualifying for the silver division, Rage defeated Spokane Sky in two games and VIP of Spokane, in two games. Then they defeated Missoula Black for the championship.

In the final match, Rage won the first game 25-10, Missoula came back in the second game with a 25-15 win. Then Rage battled to a 15-13 win in the tie breaker to capture the division championship.

Rage continued it's impressive play the following weekend during the Regionals tournament. After qualifying for the third division, the local girls came up against Yakima Black. Rage surprised Yakima in the tie-breaker 25-19, 15-25, 15-11 to win their pool.

In the double elimination bracket, they went on to beat Palouse Jrs and Cascade Green and then met Yakima Black. Yakima sent Rage into the losers bracket with a narrow win 20-25, 25-23, 15-12. Rage then sent Palouse Jrs home and earned the right to meet Yakima Black, once again, in the finals.

The two teams proved worthy of the championship as they both kept everything off of the floor except earned kills. Rage held on to beat Yakima Black in their third tie breaker of the day 25-21, 23-25, 15-10. This gave Yakima Black their first loss in bracket play and forced a final game to 15 for the championship.

After three hard fought, close tie breaker matches, Rage came on to an early lead 8-5 and then Yakima tied it at 12's. Rage scored to make it 13-12 and appeared to have momentum to finish the job … if not for a ball that just barely rolled over the net in Yakima's favor.

The final score in their fourth match against each other for the day was Yakima 15, Rage 13.

Rage played both tournaments with seven girls (only one sub) and everyone stepped up their play under the excellent leadership of assistant coach Erin Greenley and head coach Jeff Hurst.