Clark Fork falls in four sets to Wallace

WALLACE — Clark Fork volleyball went toe-to-toe with Wallace on Tuesday night, but the Miners won three straight sets to secure a season sweep of the Lady Cats.

Wallace won in four sets, 24-26, 25-17, 25-23, 25-20.

In the first matchup between these two schools on Sept. 21, Wallace walked into Clark Fork and handed the Lady Cats a sweep. Tuesday's match was much different and head coach Michelle Valliere said her team played a lot better.

"Our passing improved a ton," she said. "We didn't let them serve us off the court and we were passing all their balls up ... We rallied back and forth so many times."

Taylor Staley was out of the lineup and the Lady Cats missed her presence on the outside. Despite that, Valliere said Taylor Payne did a great job filling in for her.

"We just weren't putting the ball to the ground as hard as we should have," she said, "but I was pretty happy with taking the first set from them and making those last three sets pretty tight ... They just were slightly ahead of us tonight."

Paige Valliere tallied 17 assists, Eloise Shelton served seven aces and Caiya Yanik finished with five kills and three blocks. Lilly Reuter led the team with 20 digs, Shelton had 16, Paige 11, and Yanik and Katelyn Matteson each added 10.

"We were digging up balls like crazy," Valliere said.

Valliere said Paige played great defense and Reuter really stepped up in the back row.

"Eloise did a great job serving tonight," she said. "I had her start jump-serving and she jump-served all night and so that was really awesome. It helped us get some more points on the board."

Clark Fork (9-5) heads to the Post Falls junior varsity team at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Thursday's home match against Kootenai has been postponed.