COEUR d'ALENE - The Lake City and Post Falls volleyball teams will be rising early this morning.

Both teams advanced to the state 5A volleyball championship semifinals on Friday at Coeur d'Alene High School.

Lake City kicked things off Friday morning, defeating a tough Vallivue of Caldwell team 20-25, 25-20, 25-23, 19-25, 15-13.

Then Friday afternoon, Post Falls topped last year's runner-up, Eagle, 25-18, 22-25, 25-13, 25-15.

Lake City (20-5) will meet Idaho Falls (32-7) in its semifinal match today at 9 a.m. The Tigers defeated Timberline of Boise in the tournament's opening match.

At 11 a.m., Post Falls (31-7) will play the defending champion Rocky Mountain Grizzlies (19-6) of Meridian, which handed Borah a straight-game loss in the third match of the day.

The Timberwolves entered the tournament with zero state experience on their roster.

And it showed.

Lake City opened its match against Vallivue nervous, committing a number of errors, falling behind 6-1. The Timberwolves would eventually lose the game 25-20.

"This group has never been to state and I think we were soaking it all in," Lake City coach Bret Taylor said about his team's early struggles. "I think we were a little nervous, but I think we overcame that in game two and three."

Lake City won the next two games, then dropped the fourth to force a deciding game.

Down 6-4 in the final game, Taylor called a timeout to settle his team down.

“I told them this is about celebrating everything that we do right,” he said. “We are not out of this thing. We are within two points and if we get a sideout we will be good to go.”

Senior setter/outside hitter Jennifer Schuman said about the timeout, “Most of us were thinking there was no way we were going to let this game get away from us. Volleyball is such a mental sport that as soon as you get in their heads you can come back from anything.”

Curtis scored a kill out of the timeout to cut the lead to one. Two consecutive kills from Schuman put the Timberwolves up 9-7 — a lead they would never relinquish.

“We got louder,” Schuman said of the team’s final 11 points. “We definitely started cheering louder, trying to keep the energy up and accelerate every point.”

Schuman finished the match with 17 kills and 11 digs.

MacKenzie Brown led Lake City with 20 digs. Camille Rounds had 27 assists, and Carly Farrell had six blocks.

“What’s so great about this team is it’s not just one person carrying us,” junior setter/outside hitter Kylie Curtis said. “We all can do it and we all can step it up.”

Suddenly, the team with no state experience now has five tough games at state to carry over into today.

“We can take that we can battle and when there is adversity we can fight through it,” Curtis said.

Schuman echoed, “We are definitely taking the confidence. We are a force to be reckoned with.”

Lake City hadn’t been to state since 2007. The Timberwolves are now one of four teams with a chance to be called champions.

“We’re here,” Taylor said. “And we deserve to be.”

Curtis helped Lake City turn the tables in the second game, serving up nine straight points to turn a 6-5 deficit into a 14-6 lead.

Curtis finished the match with 25 kills, 15 assists and three aces.

Vallivue, in its first state appearance since 2000, bounced back in the fourth game with two pivotal kills from outside hitter Maddi Osburn to force a fifth game.

“We knew they (Vallivue) had some really good outside hitters,” Taylor said. “And I think we lost a little bit of energy in that fourth set, but these girls will always fight to the end.”

Eagle won four of the last five state championships, but came in as the fifth seed from District 3 this year.

But Post Falls prevailed handily, executing on offense and being in the right place on defense.

“We dug a lot of balls today,” senior setter/outside hitter Tori Bertsch said. “We were relentless. We would get down, then we’d get up and I think that was a big part of it. We’ve been waiting for this tournament the whole season so I think when it was here we were ready to play.”

Post Falls came out of the gate red hot with tough defense and an offense that placed the ball exactly where it needed to be and won the opening game.

“We’ve been working on terminating the ball and playing every point like it’s our last,” Trojans coach Willow Hanna said.

The Mustangs rallied in a close second game, overcoming an early 12-8 deficit to win 25-22.

The Trojans were nearly flawless in jumping out to a 20-5 lead in the third game. The Mustangs snuck back to within 23-13, but a Bertsch block ended all Eagle momentum as Post Falls went on to win the game.

Bertsch finished with 26 assists and 10 digs. Allison Meehan had 10 kills, five blocks and four assists. Ashley Jibby led the team with 15 kills, and Brooke Litalien had 10 digs in the libero spot.

The Trojans never trailed in the match-clinching fourth game, flying all over the court and making huge plays in huge situations.

“We talked that defense wins games,” Hanna said. “We get excited when our liberos make great digs in the back row and we had some huge digs in the back row today when they attacked us and it just came together.”

Unlike Lake City, the Trojans entered the match with state experience. Post Falls is led by four seniors, and the team has made state three years in a row.

So Hanna’s speech before the game was relaxed.

“I just told them I was proud of them,” she said. “And that we were going to play like monsters today.”

Sarah Watkins had 13 kills for the Mustangs. Shea Fahnestock had nine kills and nine assists, Reanna Blake 15 kills and four aces.

Danielle Failor added seven blocks for Post Falls. The Trojans had eight total aces.

Asked if this was her team’s best match this season, Hanna said, “I think it’s pretty close.”