Warriors hand Cats first league loss

CLARK FORK — The Wampus Cats started strong, but could not hold off the visiting Warriors, who earned a hard-fought 6-25, 27-25, 25-23, 18-25, 15-7 road win on Tuesday night in North Star League volleyball at Clark Fork High School.

Ellie Kiebert had a whopping eight of her team-high 11 aces in the first set to lead the Cats (11-3, 7-1 NSL), but the Warriors (9-3) answered by claiming the second and third sets in tight fashion as the Cats had too many service errors.

Kiebert added nine kills, Hailey Bristol seven kills and six aces, Grace Shelton seven kills and Ellie Lambert eight digs for the Cats, who played the final three sets without leader and setter Brooke Stevens, who injured her hamstring.

Kiebert took over the setting job and Aleehia Valliere, who normally plays DS for the left side, came off the bench and played right side in the back row, while Jadyn Delay coming in to play right side.

“Grace is a great motivation on the team and is starting to play at a higher level. She was a huge team leader tonight. The girls just need to dial it in and realize that we will learn from tonight’s match,” said Cats head coach Cindy Derr. “Kootenai came to win and they got that accomplished in our gym.”

Clark Fork is at the eight team Genesee Tournament this weekend.