Cards volleyball finishes week strong

Nothing like testing one’s self right at the start.

That’s what the Medical Lake volleyball team did last week as they jumped into the deep end of the Northeast A League pool and faced perennial power Lakeside in Suncrest, losing in straight sets 25-8, 25-8, 25-12.

“For our first league meeting we played one of the toughest teams in the league,” head coach Todd Harr wrote in an email. “The team played solid despite what the scores may dictate, we were out-sized and our offense had trouble getting going.”

Courtney Daylo led the way helping the defense with nine digs. Megan Goertz also had nine assists to top her team.

Saturday it was back to tournament play with a visit to Freeman where Medical Lake played every classification from 4A to B schools and came away with promising results in a series of two-set matches.

They lost a pair of tight contests to Greater Spokane League Lewis and Clark, 25-20,25-19, then fell to 2B Northwest Christian 25-15, 25-6 and Tri City Prep 25-17, 25-9.

Medical Lake finished with a flourish and maybe got an idea how they might fare in future league play. The Cardinals split with a pair of NEA foes in Deer Park, winning 25-15 and losing 25-13 and then split with Riverside, losing 25-15 before going into volleyball’s idea of “overtime” with a 28-26 extended set win.

“Drawing splits with two league opponents shows promise and creates expectations for the team for the rest of the season,” Harr said.

They concluded the day with a 2-0 sweep of 1A Warden, 25-13, 25-12.

“This tournament helped to show how much heart, grit, and determination this team has,” Harr said. “Throughout the day we had good, bad and everything in-between.”

Harr pointed to two of the team’s players, Goertz, who worked all day setting a majority of the sets. He also singled out Tori John, returning to the volleyball program and playing solid in the middle.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].