Nothing like good competition to make your volleyball team perform better.
That was the view of Community School coach Reamy Goodwin after Tuesday's Northside Conference match between the highly regarded Dietrich Blue Devils and Cutthroats at The Fish Tank.
"It was a great experience. We're twice the team after this match than we were coming in. Dietrich has great setters. But we just can't match their athleticism," he said.
Last year's Northside Conference champ and third-place state finisher, Dietrich prevailed 25-13, 25-12, 25-15 in the 2009 Cutthroat home debut.
Leading the Blue Devils were senior Nakia Norman (8 kills, 8 winning serves), junior Yoshira McDaniel (8 kills), sophomore Moriah Dill (8 kills), senior Kelci Dalton (10 serves) and junior Dayna Phillips (8 winning serves). Libero Halie Stoddard served well, too.
The Cutthroats (2-1, 1-1 league) were coming off a 17-25, 25-13, 26-24, 25-23 league victory at Murtaugh Monday night and managed to stay with the Devils early in each of three games.
Showing great improvement over last year, senior captains Morgan Pintler (6 kills) and Maggie Flood (4 kills) led the Fish with their defensive hustle and digs. Sophomore Sophia Carkonen (3 blocks, 2 winning serves) did some good things. So did sophomore Meredith Pintler and juniors Julie Doan and Natalie Goddard.
Richfield, last year's State 1A Division 2 runner-up, arrives for another league match Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Other volleyball
Wood River High School's varsity volleyball team (2-2) lost to Filer 25-23, 25-21 and beat the Buhl Tribe 25-17, 22-25, 15-12 during a road triangular meet Tuesday night. The Wolverines are traveling to the Peg Peterson tournament at Pocatello's Highland High School today.
At Fairfield Tuesday, Camas County's promising volleyball team took care of Carey 25-17, 25-21, 25-15 in the Northside Conference. The Mushers (2-1, 1-0) hosted Dietrich Thursday.
