Volleyball team's struggles continue

By ROBERT JAMES

Managing Editor

So far this season, the Bonners Ferry High School volleyball team looks like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle — lots of chaos with a few spots of perfection here and there.

Coach Janis Tucker hopes the team puts enough of the puzzle together by the end of the season to reveal a champion. Until then, she will have to watch as her young team learns how to play together and how to win.

The Badgers lost two more Intermountain League matches last week, dropping a match to St. Maries 3-0 Thursday and then losing to Kellogg 3-1 Saturday.

The fact that the team lost is not as important, however, as the fact that the Badgers are keeping the games close, Tucker said.

Against St. Maries, the Badgers started out each of the three games by spotting the Lumberjacks to large leads and then trying to fight back, which is difficult, Tucker said.

Despite that, Bonners Ferry managed to keep the scores respectable and nearly stole game three. The team lost 25-19, 25-19 and 26-24 in the match.

"We're playing a tough schedule right now," Tucker said. "The teams are all pretty equal, but if you lose the match it's not indicative of how you played."

She was disappointed that the Badgers did not come out ready to play in each game and instead gave St. Maries a five-point gift at the start, Tucker said.

Saturday, the team hosted Kellogg in an afternoon match and reversed the trend a bit. Instead of giving up early points, Bonners Ferry jumped out to leads in all four games, only to see Kellogg fight back and win three of four. Kellogg won the match 25-13, 25-18, 26-28 and 25-21.

Bonners Ferry is winless in league (0-6) and faces Timberlake today on the road and then the Badgers come home for their final regular-season match, senior night against Priest River.

Tucker thinks her young team will be ready to make a run.

"That's my thought," she said. "Sometimes you have an edge when you beat a team a few times, but sometimes you lose that edge because you overlook them."

The Badgers are starting three newcomers this season, including two first-year varsity setters: junior Kristina Turpin and sophomore Hayley Olson. The three seniors on the team, Becky Lowther, Kaitie Poston and Lucy Kim-Brown help provide leadership, and the team needs to gel some more, Tucker said.

Juniors Hannah Cady, Ellen Gatchell, Samantha Hiatt, Sabrena Cossairt and Samantha Kelly contribute as well, along with sophomores Michaela Dirks and Ashley Winkelseth.

"I know they're discouraged because they are losing matches they think they can win," Tucker said of her team. "We've got to make some breaks go Bonners Ferry's way."

Tucker takes the losses personally, feeling that they are a reflection on what she may be doing wrong as a coach.

"I'm discouraged we're not winning," she said.

The team gets another chance tonight. The JV game starts at 6 p.m.