Sandpoint Volleyball Club shines at national tourney

PHOENIX, Ariz. — The good news for the Sandpoint Volleyball Club U17 team was that it finished fifth out of 72 teams in the Volleyball Festival this week at the Phoenix Convention Center, where many of the top youth volleyball teams in the country were doing battle.

The bad news is that this particular group of girls has set the bar so high, and experienced such success at the national level, that the 5th place finish — which they achieved at this same tournament for the second consecutive year — left them with a feeling that they could have done even better.

“Last year we overachieved,” said head coach Jack Dyck, who has stewarded the club team to national acclaim. “This year it felt like we could have won it.”

Dyck’s feeling was buoyed by the fact the girls went 13-2 in the five-day tournament, with both losses coming in 18-16 third set tie-breakers. The team was seeded No. 9 in the initial draw, before beating the No. 4 and No. 6 seeds in pool play and earning the No. 4 seed in the final 16-team bracket.

They advanced to the final four, before losing a heartbreaker 18-16 in a third set tie-breaker against the team that would go on to finish second. They bounced back to win the 5th/6th place game and put the finishing touches on a stellar tournament.

Knowing he had a special team, Dyck opted to have his squad compete only in open tournaments this year, where they faced teams not just bigger in size, but teams put together from the top players in major metropolitan areas.

“We’re by far the smallest town represented,” explained Dyck. “We challenged the girls and played up and improved. We had a chance to win it.”

Christina Johnson and Piper Wahlin were the outside hitters, Hayley O’Dell, Sasha Mitchell, Koko James and Sierra Pancho were the mids, and Maddy Emmer, Alissa Millard and Spencer Schultz were the defensive specialists. Pancho, Mitchell and O’Dell are from Newport, and the rest of the girls are from Sandpoint, many of whom are key contributors to the Bulldogs’ recent spate of state titles.

Dyck said to remain competitive against national powerhouses, it was essential that his team scrap for each and every point, meaning depth was of the essence.

“Everybody made some great plays at one time or another,” said Dyck, whose team’s ample firepower belies their smaller stature. “We’re undersized, so to stay in our system, we need everybody to contribute.”