SHS volleyball unable to build off fast start in loss to Trojans

SANDPOINT — Sandpoint volleyball jumped on Post Falls early in Thursday's match at Les Rogers Court, but the Trojans weathered the storm to pickup a straight-set victory, 25-22, 25-15, 25-21.

"It was disappointing that we couldn't capitalize on a team that we can beat on our home court," head coach Karen Alsager said.

The Bulldogs grabbed an early 8-4 advantage in the first set, but Post Falls slowly battled back and in the end prevailed.

The second set was all Post Falls as they dominated to put Sandpoint in a 2-0 hole.

In the third set, the Bulldogs found their groove and stepped up when it mattered most to jump out to a 13-6 lead. But once again Post Falls was resilient. After the score was tied at 19-19, the Trojans went on a 6-2 run to close the match and hand the Bulldogs their third loss of the season.

"It just felt like the other team just chipped away with very strange ways to get points ... just weird things that are hard to fix but they add up to a point where all the sudden it's 25," Alsager said.

Overall, Alsager thought her team played better than they did last weekend against Lewiston and Lakeland, but didn't act like they were ahead when they took the lead.

"Volleyball is such a roller coaster of ups and downs that you have to make the ups last as long as they can and lengthen that time," Alsager said. "We came out hot against this team last year too. We beat them last year in our opening game, so I wasn't real surprised we came out hot in the first game, but we still have the inability to score when it's not Gabby [Hicks]."

Hicks, a senior, finished with 13 kills and two aces to lead the Bulldogs. Lauren Breuner had 11 set assists, Kinzie Ward notched eight digs, Bella Phillips tallied two blocks and Emma Brown added two aces.

Sandpoint (0-3, 0-1 IEL) heads to Lake City 7 p.m. Tuesday.