5A REGION 1 VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: Lakeland loses, waits

By MARK NELKE 

Sports editor 

RATHDRUM — After being one set away from an automatic berth to state, the Lakeland Hawks left their gym Tuesday night not knowing if their season was even going to continue. 

A computer will make that decision this morning.

The second-seeded Lewiston Bengals came into Hawk Court and pulled a reverse sweep, beating Lakeland 25-27, 22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-13 to win the 5A Region 1 volleyball championship. 

Lewiston (15-11) advances to state Oct. 29-31 — at either Coeur d'Alene, Lake City or Post Falls high school, depending on who all qualifies for state from the north in 6A. 

Lakeland (15-14) will find out today, when the MaxPreps rankings are updated following Tuesday's district tournament matches statewide, if the Hawks end up in a play-in match on Saturday.

"Let's hope we get a play-in game," Lakeland coach Kelsie Badger told her team after the match. 

Lakeland was bidding for its fourth straight regional title, and sixth in eight years. 

Instead, Lewiston won its first regional title since 2013. The Bengals last qualified for state in 2016.

"Lewiston, they had the momentum at the right time, I guess. They controlled the momentum in the last two sets. They did a good job of tooling the block, which I kinda knew they were doing, so we worked a lot on that. That probably made the difference, for sure." 

Lakeland led 23-21 in the third set before Lewiston scored four straight points to keep the match alive. 

"I could see our energy drop in that fourth set, for sure," Badger said. "But in that fifth game, it was point for point, no room for error. Such a short game." 

Lakeland trailed early in the deciding set, but battled back to tie it at 10. Lewiston opened the lead to 14-11. Lakeland fought off two match points before Bengal senior outside hitter Avery Balmer sent a power tip down the line into the corner for the winning points. 

"Oh gosh; a lot of heart, a lot of energy," first-year Lewiston coach Marie Huffman said. "Just the buy-in, believing they could do it." 

Sophomore Maddi Justesen had 14 kills, senior Jolie Warren 13 kills for Lakeland. Jaeli Hoffman had 25 assists and 19 digs, Emma Beaty 29 digs and three aces, Anabel Bowie six blocks, Kindell Day 13 assists. 

"They're just so scrappy, and they have big hitters," Huffman said of Lakeland. "Their whole front row, they're huge. I said you can cannot hit through the block, but if we're going to try to use the block, we've got to cover. I think it was us making sure that we served tough enough so they didn't have all three (hitting) options every time." 

Lakeland beat Lewiston in both 5A Inland Empire League meetings, both in four sets. Lakeland beat Lewiston for last year's regional title in the Bengals' gym.

"That first set I told them, they stole it from you," Huffman said. "The second set we started to think, we can do this; we can win. So we just played relentless. Our serve-receive was great, and our hitters were going to put it away." 

Balmer finished with 20 kills and three aces for Lewiston. Emery McKarcher had 43 assists, outside hitter Olivia Storm 13 kills, libero Kamdyn Welker 24 digs and Elle Walker, a junior middle blocker who just returned to full-time action for the postseason following a broken leg suffered during club season, had three blocks. 

"I really hope they make it,"Huffman said of the Hawks. "We're both great teams. They deserve to be there just as much as we deserve to be there."