Two Blaine County prep volleyball teams opened their 2005 campaigns Tuesday night.
WRHS falls at Middleton
Tuesday's non-conference matches at Middleton started well for Wood River with wins in the freshman and junior varsity matches. The varsity didn't fare as well. Middleton won 25-18, 25-20, 18-25, 25-11.
"Middleton is a talented team," said Wood River coach Tim Richards about the Vikings, State 3A tournament qualifiers last October.
"We didn't have as consistent hitting as we would have liked—and we didn't block very well or adjust to what Middleton was doing. But we learned some things," he added.
The Wolverines started out with Hannah Richards setting the 5-1 offense, but switched to a 6-2 with Richards on the outside and Leah McIlhenny and Jordan Scanlon setting the offense in the 25-18 third-game victory. "Jordan did a nice job and we had 10 kills in that third game," said coach Richards.
For the match, Hannah Richards had 11 kills, Jamie Stone 10, Kelsey Lidstrom 3 and Elissa Baker 3. Lauren Morgenthaler, Lidstrom and Baker blocked for points, while Baker and Lidstrom had a pair of service aces apiece.
Wood River (0-1) hosts Jerome and Century Tuesday in the home opener in Hailey.
Carey splits opener
The Carey Panthers (1-1) came very close to sweeping their season-opening home triangular meet with Hansen and Mackay Tuesday night.
In matches played in a best-of-three format, Carey defeated Hansen 25-22, 25-20 and then dropped a hard-fought 14-25, 25-23, 15-13 nail-biter to Mackay.
The hitting of Brenna Silva, Whitney Peck, Jessica Royal and Amy Olsen led the Panthers in their season opener. Thursday night, Carey hosted Camas County (0-1) in the Northside Conference debut.
