Bantams pierce Pirates' hull

Nov. 3—Lexi Roberts floated the ball to an inviting height near the center of the net, Laney Augir capitalized with a decisive leaping spike, and the Clarkston Bantams closed out the Rogers Pirates of Spokane in their 2A Greater Spokane League district volleyball tournament opener on Monday.

Though they had to work hard in the final set, the third-seeded Bantams came through with a sweep, prevailing 25-10, 25-11, 25-19 to please the home crowd at Clarkston High School.

“We played really good,” said Clarkston setter Lexi Roberts, who racked up 27 assists — more than one for every three points won by her team. “We had a lot of energy, and we all connected really well.”

The Bantams (11-4) advance to the semifinal round, where they will next take on second-seeded West Valley of Spokane Valley at 6 p.m. today on the Eagles’ home court.

Switching up the offense

“We’ve just been working really hard on getting consistent defense and serve-receive, and we’ve been working really hard this season on being unpredictable with offense,” Clarkston coach Hannah Winter said. “We really challenged the girls tonight to switch up their offense and try different things.”

Joslyn McCormack-Marks had a complete showing for the Bantams, finishing with eight kills, four blocks and two aces. In a highlight moment for the junior middle blocker, she executed a relatively rare “slide” play, cutting out of her normal position to field one of Roberts’ sets at the right-hand side of the net.

“It was pretty cool, because I don’t normally do that,” McCormack-Marks said. “It’s hard to do.”

Bailey Blaydes and Laela Leavitt led the back row effort for Clarkston, finishing with six kills apiece.

The outcome of each of the first two sets was never meaningfully in doubt, while an energized Rogers capitalized on a slight dip in Clarkston’s level to lead early in the third before the Bantams righted the ship.

This was Clarkston’s third victory over Rogers this season, all of them coming in straight sets. The result broke a two-match skid from the end of the regular season.

Settling the score

Clarkston has split previous meetings with West Valley, topping the Eagles in three sets on Oct. 1 but losing to them in four on Oct. 26. Both teams lost twice to Pullman and beat everyone else to finish the regular season with matching league records of 9-3; West Valley received the district tournament’s second seed based on a preseason tiebreaking draw result.

Today’s matchup is both a season rubber match and a chance for year-to-year redemption, as the Bantams were eliminated by the Eagles in last year’s district semifinals. The winner will advance to the district final and secure a guaranteed berth to a District 5/6 crossover against opposition from the Central Washington Athletic Conference.

How will Clarkston go about extending its season?

“We really want to try and outsmart the Eagles, and keep the ball moving in different places so they don’t know where it’s going,” Winter said.

McCormack-Marks added that the Bantams must “have a mentality of winning the whole time, and not get in our heads even when they score on us.”

Wendt may be contacted at (208) 848-2268, or cwendt@lmtribune.com.