This year, the Badger volleyball program has nine returning varsity players.  

“I’m excited for our level of play,” Bonners Ferry head coach Cynthia Cummings said the first week of practice. “We could play tomorrow.”  

The team voted seniors Helene Rae and Kimberly Lucas as co-captains. 

The program has six seniors this year in Rae, Lucas, Ellie Falck, Riley Kimball, Allison Williams and Natallie Tuma.  

Last season, Bonners, which beat Timberlake to win the two-team District 1 title, finishing 11-12 on the season. The Badgers have won the district championship two years in a row. 

 However, Timberlake had won the tiebreaker between the two teams by for league by 5-4  

The Badgers tied for fifth place at the 3A state tournament at Coeur d’Alene High’s Viking Court. They went 1-2 on the tournament’s first day. It was the Badgers’ second straight visit to the state contest and seventh visit in the past 20 years.  

In the first match, the seventh-seeded Badgers lost to No. 2 Snake River (25-14, 25-21, 25-19, before going on to beat No. 6 South Fremont (30-28, 16-25, 23-25, 25-22, 15-11).  

Bonners Ferry was then eliminated by No. 1 McCall-Donnelly (25-21, 17-25, 25-22, 25-15). The Badgers were close in the first set and won the second set over the Vandals.  

The Badgers took fourth in 1994, the last time they returned from the state tournament with a trophy. 

“We are looking to place higher than fifth this year,” Cummings said. “With this group I think we can. We’re hoping to repeat the path to state this year by defeating Timberlake at districts.” 

In the 4A Intermountain League, which includes Timberlake and Bonners Ferry, only the district champion advances to state. The league champion is decided by a best of two games and the district champion is decided in a best of three contest. 

Cummings said she is looking forward to seeing the hard work of many of the seniors come into fruition.  

The Badgers will be busy on the road as they will play nine of their 16 games away.  

For the first time a tri-match between Bonners, St. Maries and Moscow is scheduled for October. This will allow the team to face more opponents leading up to the league contest. Additionally, Bonners Ferry will again compete in the Sheriden/Welch Crossover tournament, giving them more repetitions on the court.  

Last year, Helene Rae and then freshman Taren Bateman were named All League players.  

As outside hitter, Rae led the Badgers in kills per set and kills for the season with 2.9 per set with a hitting percentage of 0.195 and led the team with kills for the season with 172. She averaged 2.6 digs per set, the second highest on the team, and earned 157 digs this season. Rae earned 36 aces averaging 0.6 per set. 

Bateman earned 1.9 kills per set, a hitting percentage of 0.186 and earned the second most kills on the team with 112 kills for the season. Bateman also led the team in aces for the season with 40 and averaged 0.7 aces per set.  

    Ellie Falck sets the ball during a drill at practice.