Lady Hawks’ mettle tested in three Great Northern League matches

The best way to sum up last week for the Cheney volleyball team is to let head coach Brianne Lowe do the talking.

“This whole week was a fighting week for us, being up, being down this was a good week for the girls,” Lowe said Monday. “If we had only beaten Pullman, it would have been a perfect week.”

And the Lady Hawks came close, fighting back from a 0-2 hole to force a fifth and deciding game with the visiting Greyhounds Saturday, losing 15-13 in the end to the Great Northern League’s third-place team. The loss capped a week where the Lady Hawks may have found their mettle, battling to beat a determined West Valley team in five sets Tuesday, and getting a rare win against Clarkston Thursday in four games.

Cheney rallied from a 24-21 deficit before losing game one to Pullman 29-27, going down 0-2 with a 25-19 loss in game two. It forced a moment of decision for Lowe and company – fold or fight?

“The girls fought and came out with vengeance,” Lowe said.

Cheney cruised to an 18-8 lead in winning game three 25-16, and then hung on for a 25-22 win in game four. In the deciding game, a Pullman scoring run midway through the game was too much for the Lady Hawks to overcome.

“When you only go to 15 things happen fast,” Lowe said. “We just didn’t have the time to recover.”

Cheney played well offensively and defensively all week. Against the Greyhounds (4-2, 5-2) Lauren Puyear had 14 kills, Ashley Seiler 11 and Liz Gill nine as Cheney had a respectable .256 hitting percentage.

Kinsey Pease had 22 assists and Kendall Case 20 as Cheney operated out of a 6-2 set. Pease also had six aces and Gill added five. Seiler had 19 digs, Puyear 18 and Gill 15 while Seiler and Pease each had four aces.

Thursday at home against Clarkston (1-5) the Lady Hawks again fell behind early, losing game one 25-22. But after that Cheney began each of the next three games with early runs and kept building from there to win in convincing fashion, 25-18, 25-15 and 25-14.

Seiler had 19 kills while Gill had 10 and Puyear and Pease seven each. Case made 37 assists. Gill, Case and Kimber Case each had a pair of aces. A telling match stat may be in digs, where Pease had 21 while Seiler and Gill each had 12. Lowe said a number of those digs ended up as points for Cheney.

“We stepped it up defensively,” she said. “I think it was the first time the girls saw that when we make a defensive play, we can get something out of it.”

Seiler also added a pair of blocks. The Lady Hawks committed just 11 errors in 121 attempts for a .297 hitting percentage.

Tuesday’s match at West Valley (1-5, 1-6) was again a battle as Cheney won game one 25-20, but then lost the next two 25-23 and 27-25. The Lady Hawks won game four 25-20, and with good serving built a 6-1 lead en route to winning game five 15-5.

Seiler led in kills with 21, Gill 17, Puyear 10 and Pease seven as Cheney hit an impressive .365. Pease had 26 assists, operating out of a single-setter, 5-1 offense, along with three aces. Puyear had 11 digs with Madison Risley three blocks.

Cheney is fourth in the GNL with a 3-3 record heading into the second round of league play this week, hosting fifth-place Deer Park (1-5, 2-6) Tuesday and fourth-ranked, unbeaten league leader Colville (6-0, 8-0) Thursday. Having seen everyone once, Lowe has plenty of video to determine what worked and what didn’t – as does every other coach in the GNL.

“It’s going to be which teams makes the best adjustments during the match,” she said.

Cheney also takes part in the annual Spokane Crossover Tournament. The Lady Hawks are in a four-team pool at Shadle Park, opening Friday at 7:30 p.m. against CV, followed by a 10 a.m. game Saturday with West Valley-Yakima and wrapping up against Colton before moving to double elimination play.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].