Young has big night, but Wampus Cats fall to Warriors

HARRISON FLATS — Nona Young had a season-high 16 digs, and Hailey Bristol added eight kills, but the Wampus Cats couldn’t prevail in a tightly-contested clash of North Star League volleyball powers, falling 25-20, 22-25, 25-20, 25-22 to Kootenai Tuesday night at Clark Fork High School.

Brooke Stevens ran the offense with 21 assists, four kills and seven digs, but the Wampus Cats (9-7, 6-2 NSL) struggled with 10 service errors, which proved costly as each set went down to the wire.

Emily Garman dove for a ball and dislocated her shoulder in the second set, but Torri Foltz, Ellie Lambert and Young stepped up to pick up the slack in the back row.

“They played well as a team tonight,” said Cats head coach Cindy Derr. “Nona did a great job in the back row serving and digging the ball well. I was pleased with her defensive play tonight.”

Allison Warner added four kills and seven digs, Lambert 14 digs and Tessa Sutton four kills in the loss, as the Cats struggled against the strong-serving Warriors (7-1 NSL).

“Kootenai has some good servers and we struggled to get good passes to target but we kept fighting along with them,” said Derr. “I was pleased that this time around it was a much better played match even though they won again.”

The Cats are at Bonners Ferry on Thursday on Dig Pink Night, where teams will wear pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.