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NEWPORT — The Priest River volleyball team doesn’t usually play on Mondays, but they still won their Monday, Sept. 29 game against Newport, ending the border rivals’ rematch in five sets. In the back and forth contest, the Spartans won the first set 25-21, Newport came back and took the second set 25-21, Priest River rallied for a 25-15 third set win. Newport took the fourth set 25-22, setting up the tie breaking fifth set, which Priest River won 15-10.
“It was trickery getting it going tonight,” Priest River coach Katlyn Ward says. “They found a rhythm and made it work.”
Newport competed until they brought Monday’s game to five sets — two more than their last game against Priest River Sept. 11, when Newport lost in three sets.
“[The] team really competed,” Newport coach Kathy Eggleston says. “They worked hard together and continued to work.”
Despite Newport’s hard work, some not-sosolid serves and other small mistakes made the Grizzlies lose the first, third and final fifth sets, Eggleston says. But they still played well as a team.
“[The] team did a great job keeping their energy up and supporting each other,” Eggleston says.
Newport’s Kaylia Earl and Grace Parry led the Grizzlies’ offense, Earl with eight kills and seven ace serves, Parry with eight kills. Parry also led in defense with eight blocks, alongside Grace Keck’s 14 digs and Abby Martin’s 12 digs. Sammi Tellessen and Kenna Arthur each had 10 assists.
Across the border, Spartan Jayda Storro led in assists with 45. Storro also had three ace serves, leading alongside Kenadie Kingery’s three, Raygyn Turner’s three and Callie Stanger’s four. Also leading the Spartans’ offense were Turner, who had 20 kills, and McKinley Burgess-Duquett, who had 14 kills. On defense were Kingery and Aleigha Jensen with three blocks each, and Stanger with six digs, Turner with five digs and Toni Marinello with five digs.
