SVC has strong showing at tourney
SANDPOINT - “Funny,” “giggly,” and “dorky” were the first three words uttered when members of the dominant Sandpoint Volleyball Club U16 squad were asked which single word best describes their team.
The fact they answered while laughing says a lot about the key to their success, but their opponents probably don't find it so funny when they're on the wrong end of the score while facing one of the premier youth volleyball teams in the country.
The SVC team tied for ninth last weekend out of 82 teams from all over the West at the Pacific Northwest Qualifier in Spokane. While it didn't have the cachet of their championship recently in Yakima, the finish was equally impressive in a tournament featuring some of the best U16 teams in the U.S.
The highlight of the weekend was a win over San Gabriel Elite of West Covina, Calif., one of eight quality wins SVC registered over the weekend. Their only two losses, both tightly contested three-game matches that could have gone either way, came against Vision of Los Gatos, Calif., and NorCal of Pleasanton, Calif.
Head coach Jack Dyck said those teams draw from a pool of millions of people, in stark contrast to the tiny little hamlet of Sandpoint. Nonetheless, SVC has won enough elite tournaments the past couple years to have earned a national reputation.
“There's a target on your back,” said back row player Alissa Millard.
The team calls their win over Portland in the Yakima final the highlight of the season, but the win over San Gabriel was probably more impressive.
“I don't know how we beat them,” said Koko James of San Gabriel. “That was really awesome.”
James may have been being modest, but Dyck credits her setting and fellow sophomore Piper Wahlin's smashes as the driving force of the team. The two opened a lot of eyes with their play in Spokane.
“Piper and Koko established themselves as top players with anybody; there's nobody in the tournament I'd have traded for them,” said Dyck, no stranger to elite level players. “Piper is as good an attacker as there was in the tournament.”
That firepower, along with an insatiable drive to win, helps SVC hold their own against front lines boasting players 3-4 inches taller across the board. SVC has decided to skip nationals this year, and will play in the Reno Qualifier at the end of April, one of the biggest youth tournaments in the country.
Christina Johnson, Spencer Schultz, Sierra Poncho, Maddy Emmer and Allison Halliday team with the aforementioned Wahlin, James and Millard to round out the team.