Powerhouse Lake City takes care of Sandpoint

SANDPOINT — With weapons galore and a quick and deceptive attack, Lake City showed why its among the best teams in the state, dispatching Sandpoint 25-9, 25-13, 25-18 on Thursday night in nonleague volleyball action at Les Rogers Court.

“We just witnessed a legitimate volleyball situation,” said Bulldog head coach Jeff Hurst, whose team struggled to find big runs. “We didn’t play our best volleyball, compounded by that’s a great team. What are we going to do to beat a great team? You can’t roll over on yourself.”

Klaire Mitchell tallied 21 set assists and two blocks, Ashley Kaufman 11 kills and four aces, Reilley Chapman 10 digs, Kiki Cates four aces and Tanai Jenkins two blocks for the Timberwolves (23-1), who were in firm command of every set.

The T-Wolves’ only loss this year was to Lynden Christian at the Eugene Tournament, and there is no weakness in any phase of their game. Head coach Mike Summers liked what he saw offensively against an improved Sandpoint team.

“We served aggressively, took them out of system quite a bit,” he said. “An efficient, quick tempo. We played well together as a team.”

Sandpoint hosts Lewiston on Saturday, looking for the season sweep.

n Hutto nets game winner as Bulldogs blank Bears

MOSCOW — Jezza Hutto scored her sixth goal of the season in the 13th minute, and the Bulldogs did what they came to do, beating the Bears 1-0 on Thursday in 4A Inland Empire League soccer in Moscow.

The Bulldogs (10-3-1, 4-0 4A IEL) secured the No. 1 seed, and first round bye and home field advantage for the upcoming district tournament. Hutto’s goal came off a nice cross from Riley Walkington, who picked up her ninth assist on what would end up being the early game winner.

Sandpoint out-shot Moscow 16-1, and controlled possession for much of the game, which is what Bulldog head coach Conor Baranski was expecting. It was the third win in three days for the Bulldogs, a nice test run for what they’ll have to do at state to win a title.

“Moscow played a similar game to last time, pretty defensive. We didn’t really have to get out of third gear,” said Baranski. “I was able to rest a bunch of our key players. We did what we needed to do, and we’ll take our momentum from three games, three wins, in three nights.

The Bulldogs will face the winner of Moscow and Lakeland next Wednesday in the 4A Region 1 Championship.

n Wampus Cats sweep Miners

WALLACE — Another night, another sweep for the Wampus Cats in North Star League play, as Clark Fork handled Wallace 25-8, 25-16, 25-23 on Thursday night in North Star League volleyball in Wallace.

Brooke had 23 assists, five kills and four aces, Hailey 10 kills, Tessa Sutton eight kills and two aces, and Ali Sutton six kills, three aces and a block to lead the Wampus Cats (12-5, 7-0 NSL), who handled their business on the road after a big win over Bonners.

“We started out strong but in the second set we let Wallace control the pace of the game,” said Cats head coach Cindy Derr. “In the third set I took a time out and said we were playing down to their level and we needed to pick it up. Wallace led until 22-22, we got the ball back and finished out the game.”

Clark Fork is at the Genesee tournament on Saturday in what should be a great tune-up for state.