By james art IDAHO FALLS — Pocatello and Lakeland treated the crowd to everything one would expect from a game or two. There were long rallies, thunderous leaps, stifling blocks and awe-inspiring digs.
Unfortunately for the Thunder and their fans, there weren’t many Pocatello wins as the Hawks eliminated Pocatello in the final game at the Mountain America Center Friday night. Bonneville and Rigby were also eliminated earlier in the evening.
Pocatello came in as the No. 2 seed and knocked off Wood River to start Thursday’s tournament. Lakeland, the No. 1 seed, lost its tournament opener to No. 8 in Twin Falls.
And after the Thunder suffered their first loss to Idaho Falls on Friday morning and the Hawks topped Middleton, the top two seeds in the 5A tournament were tied much sooner than many would have expected.
Lakeland jumped out to an early lead, scoring the game’s first four points.
The Thunder made small rallies, but were never able to climb all the way and lost the first set, 25-17.
An early Lakeland lead again in the second didn’t sink Pocatello, who again came back behind the play of senior Jacoby Nebecker.
Nebeker has been one half of the Thunder’s one-two offensive attack all season, joining junior Abby Lusk. During Pocatello’s first two games this weekend, however, she wasn’t as effective as her team expected.
Against Lakeland, she found that efficiency, especially in the second set, where she tallied seven kills.
The Thunder took the second set 25-23 to tie the match.
The third set saw a relentless and evenly spread attack, with Nebeker and Lusk doing their best to keep the Thunder’s attack going.
Poky’s dynamic duo combined for eight kills in the third set alone. But the Hawks’ three-headed attack of Alyssa Rickman, Landry Simon and Zia Mounier was too much for the Thunder as Lakeland took the third set, 25-19.
Pocatello scraped and battled and got a huge late contribution from Katie Matulis, but the depth of the top-ranked team in Division 5A proved too much as the Hawks ended Pocatello’s season with a 25-20 fourth-set victory.
Munyer led the way for Lakeland, finishing the match with 20 kills, four blocks and two service aces. Simon recorded 15 kills and Rickman added 10 kills.
Lusk gave the Thunder 17 kills and Nebeker had 13 kills and one block.
Owyhee eliminated Rigby 3-0
Rigby staged a rare comeback – dropping the first two sets and winning the last three – to stay alive on Friday morning. But Ouihi allowed that door to even be open.
As they did against Eagle, the Trojans clawed their way back in set three. But the Storm nipped that in the bud, closing out the sweep with a 25-23 set victory.
Wood River eliminated Bonneville 3-1
The Bees, who lost to Twin Falls in the late afternoon session, stayed on the court for the evening game and were ousted by Wood River.
Bonneville took the third set, 25-14, after dropping the first two, 25-18 and 25-16, and forced extra points in the fourth. But the Wolverines had enough to stave off a fifth set, taking the fourth, 26-24.
Saturday
With their losses, Bonneville, Pocatello and Rigby were eliminated.
That means District 5-6 has just two survivors between the 6A and 5A tournaments.
Idaho Falls is the lone 5A representative after posting wins over Columbia and Pocatello. The Tigers will return to the court at 11 a.m. Saturday to face the Cinderella of the 5A tournament, Twin Falls. The No. 8 seed followed up its Lakeland upset with a win over Bonneville on Friday.
The winner of the match will go directly to the finals, where they will have to lose twice to be knocked out. The loser will face the winner of the morning session’s Wood River-Lakeland clash.
In 6A, No. 2 Madison remains undefeated, with wins over Rocky Mountain and Owyhee.
The Bobcats will face No. 1 Skyview at 11 a.m. with the same potential scores against Idaho Falls and Twin Falls.
Whip it around
Bear Lake remains alive and undefeated in the 4A tournament played at Lake City High School.
The same can be said for Malad in Group 3A, which is played by the University of Idaho.
Butte County is still in the hunt and is also undefeated in the 2A tournament played at Jerome High School.
Grace Lutheran, which earned a playoff berth via play-in, remains undefeated in 1A at Canyon Ridge. They are joined by Rockland, which suffered a loss at Grace Lutheran on Friday afternoon.
All six state champions will be determined Saturday as the IHSAA volleyball season concludes.
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