Bengals advance past Bears in 5-set thriller

Two teams with 13 combined seniors played for a chance to extend their volleyball season, and it showed on the court.

The Lewiston Bengals outlasted the Moscow Bears in a loser-out 5A Inland Empire League district tournament match 25-23, 21-25, 19-25, 25-14, 15-11 on Tuesday at Lewiston High School.

“Not the way that we expected the game to unfold. And what I saw from my team in the fifth set is a whole bunch of resilience,” Lewiston coach Halle White said. “I watched a lot of (the seniors’) leadership, even ones that aren’t typically, you know, maybe the vocal leaders come out today and take a big role on the floor.”

Lewiston will next travel to Rathdrum, Idaho, to play a best-of-three series against top-seeded Lakeland for the district championship and a berth into the 5A state tournament.

For the 13 seniors on the floor, it was the final time playing on the Lewiston court. The Bengals (17-8) will continue the rest of the season on the road, while the season came to an end for the Bears (10-15). Both realities hit the players when the five-set battle concluded.

Senior Addy McKarcher had 23 kills, seven digs and two blocks to lead Lewiston. Her younger sister, sophomore Emery McKarcher, was in tears after the match as she embraced her senior teammates.

“She was my freshman setter when I was a junior and so I’ve been with her all of her high school career,” Addy McKarcher said. “So it’s definitely going to be tough for the both of us just because we’ve had a really good bond between us. And, I mean, we’re really close in general.”

Lewiston senior Jordynn Albright had nine kills and four blocks. Senior libero Brooke Bernal added 19 digs.

Senior Eva Biladeau had 19 kills for the Bears and junior Jessa Skinner added 12.

“What a great group of kids,” Moscow coach Lisa Davis said. “I mean they come, they work hard. They do a good job with adversity and fighting through, and they’ve got great energy and we’re really gonna miss them next year.”

Lewiston strikes first

Lewiston had swept the Bears in both regular-season meetings and early on it looked like it was going to be the same story at Districts.

The Bengals jumped out to a 7-1 lead aided by a kill by Addy McKarcher, a great dig by junior Ella Vanhorn and an ace by sophomore Avery Balmer.

The Bears cut the lead to one several times in the first set, but Albright and Addy McKarcher each had a pair of kills in a 5-0 Bengal run.

Lewiston never trailed in the first set, but Moscow did not make it easy. The Bears used a 9-3 run after using their second timeout to tie the set at 22.

Two points later, now tied at 23, Addy McKarcher finished off a point to give Lewiston a set point and younger sister Emery McKarcher dove to her right to extend a point that the Bengals would win to clinch the set.

Bears force the issue

Moscow played a scrappy style of volleyball that made it hard for Lewiston to put it away. There were several points where four or five Bear players were picking themselves off the court after making great plays.

That scrappiness allowed Moscow to take the second and third sets. The Bears snapped a 10-set losing streak to Lewiston in the process.

There was a great contingency of Moscow supporters behind the Bear bench and as the road team continued to win hard-fought point after hard fought-point, the visiting crowd got louder and louder.

Moscow’s front line was fantastic all night with its blocks. Junior Jacque Williams led the Bears with eight blocks on the night.

“I just think that they came to compete and play and that’s what we talked about all week since last week,” Davis said. “Just come in and compete and you know, taking the points that we could and fighting through the ones that we weren’t getting before. I thought we did that tonight.”

The Bears went from a team that was just trying to compete to a team that had all of the momentum.

Bengals roar back

Lewiston had it back against the wall and struggled early in the fourth set as the Bears won the first four points on three Bengal errors and an ace.

Albright found space in the Moscow defense for a soft kill and while the ball was not hit hard, the momentum took a major turn.

The Bengals won nine-of-10 points to force a Bear timeout, but that did not slow Lewiston down.

Addy and Emery McKarcher combined for three aces in the set and senior Anna Ready connected on a kill that sparked a 14-4 run to end the fourth set, won by Lewiston.

A light switches on

Much like the fourth set, Moscow jumped out early in the fifth. Biladeau had three kills and Williams added a pair as the Bears charged to a 6-2 lead.

White called a timeout and asked her team an important question.

“When you walk into a dark room, what do you do? Turn the lights on,” White said. “And I asked them, which one of them was going to turn the lights on. And what I saw was that all six players after that timeout, we were down like four points, all six players went out there and they all did their part to turn the light on.”

Albright came out of the timeout with a kill. A few points later, Emery McKarcher hit a pair of kills to tie the set at eight.

The light had been turned on and Lewiston did not look back as it won four of the next five points. Ready’s kill set up match point and Moscow was called for a double hit to end the match.

For Moscow, seniors Biladeau, Samantha Pfiffner, Hannah Robertson, Ashley Uhrig, Madison Burns and Brooklynn Comstock played their final match as a Bear.

“I think this is one of the finest groups of kids that I’ve had in a while,” Davis said. “I mean (they) just play for each other and cheer for each other and just their excitement is one of my favorite things to watch.”

Next for the Bengals

Lewiston will travel to face Lakeland after the Hawks handled Sandpoint 25-7, 25-5, 25-17 on Tuesday in the IEL’s other loser-out match.

The Bengals lost both regular season matches against Lakeland. The two teams will meet on Thursday for two matches with an if-necessary match on Saturday. The winner of the series will take the one-and-only IEL spot at the state tournament. All matches will be in Rathdrum.

“You know, I saw a Moscow team I’ve never seen before that was so determined to fight. They were so scrappy. They got so many balls up. They ran to the back wall over and over and got things up,” White said. “I really admire the work that they put in and the fight that they had to keep their season alive. And I asked my girls to show that kind of fight come Thursday.”

While the season continues for Lewiston, seniors Ready, Albright, Bernal, Sophie Canner, Hannah Huffman, Kara Stranger and Addy McKarcher have played their final games as a Bengal on their home court. The emotion after the match on Tuesday showed how much it meant to the team.

“There’s a lot of us seniors. And we’ve played with each other since, like, fourth grade in clubs,” Addy McKarcher said. “So that was really — there was a lot on the line for that. And, I mean, we’re obviously sad it’s our last game, but we’re just happy we won our last home game. And now just our focus is Lakeland on Thursday. ... We really want to make it to State.”

Isbelle can be reached at 208-848-2268, risbelle@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyIsbelle.