sports
10- | the sentinel
Volleyball sixth at nationals NIC finishes 2-2, beats No. 8 Arizona Western, No. 4 Iowa Western Garrett Cabeza Sports Editor
score gets to 20. Those are the championship points. Against Blinn, we weren’t able to do that.” Kydd said “most the teams we After entering the season as an played against were way bigger unranked team and figured to be and more physical than we were.” the fourth best team in its conferThe Lady Cardinals then beat ence, the North Idaho College volNo. 4 Iowa Western Community leyball team finished sixth, going College in four sets (24-26, 262-2, at the NJCAA national tourna24, 25-23, 25-21) before losing to ment in Casper, Wyo., which took Western Nebraska. place Nov. 21-23. NIC played Blinn, Iowa West“I’m really satisfied with how we ern and Western Nebraska earlier finished,” NIC sophomore libero this season. NIC lost to all three of Russia Robinson said. “Of course, I them, including five sets to Blinn would always like it to be better but and three sets to Iowa Western. just the fact that we kind of came in Western Nebraska beat them almost as underdogs I guess. Notwice, the first time in five sets at body thought that we were going to the Salt Lake Community College be there. The fact that we went in Crystal Inn Invitational Aug. 30 there and did good was definitely a and the second time in four sets at great accomplishment.” the Northeastern Junior College No. 3 seed Western Nebraska Pizza Hut Invitational Sept. 13. beat No. 9 NIC (18-12) in five sets Robinson said it was nice beat(25-22, 20-25, 25-17, 23-25, 15-9) in ing Iowa the fifthWestern, sixth place “Our team passing was avenging match. her team’s NIC through the roof this loss to it head coach weekend and a large part earlier in Miles Kydd said was because of her (Russia the season. he didn’t Robinson’s) passing.” Robknow how inson was to feel named about finmiles kydd to the ishing in NIC head volleyball coach all-toursixth place. nament “I guess team and with time credits her teammates and coach you’ll have a little more perspecfor the honor. tive,” Kydd said. “Everything that “I think that if it wasn’t for my happened this year, for me, was team, if it wasn’t for the girls that just like, I don’t know what to exI had and for Miles putting in all pect. I don’t know what it takes to the work with me, then I wouldn’t be good (since this is Kydd’s first have been able to even actually year coaching at NIC and in the get that award,” Robinson said. NJCAA).” “Our team passing was The Lady Cardinals opened through the roof this weekend up the tournament with a win in and a large part was because of straight sets (26-24, 25-22, 25-17) her passing,” Kydd said. against eighth-seeded Arizona Kydd also said that, among other Western College. things, Robinson is a great setter. “I think we were a better “The other thing that she does team than they were,” Kydd said. better than anybody I’ve ever “I think that showed when we coached and anybody at that tourwatched a little bit of video. We nament was setting the second ball, had to get some things that we just her ability to set our attackers is were concerned about and probunrivaled in the NJCAA this year.” ably the first game was, shouldn’t Kydd also said statistically, have been that close but it was.” Larissa Claassen played her best NIC advanced to the quarterfivolleyball all year at regionals and nals to face top-seeded Blinn Colnationals. lege (Brenham, Texas) but lost In the championship game in four sets (21-25, 25-23, 18-25, Blinn beat No. 2 Tyler College 18-25). “I don’t think Blinn is that much (Tyler, Texas) in four sets. No. 6 Salt Lake, who beat NIC in the better than us,” Kydd said. “One Region 18 championship game, finof the things we’ve talked about ished fourth. all year is finding a way when the
once passed over, schools now diggin' her NIC libero Russia Robinson takes her volleyball skills from So. Cal to North Idaho, helps her team to two trips to nationals Garrett Cabeza Sports Editor If you excelled in two sports in high school and probably had the opportunity to play either one of them in college, which would you choose? It’s common to play multiple sports in high school, but rare to play two sports in college, so it would be a tough decision, especially if you wanted to play both. Fortunately for North Idaho College sophomore Russia Robinson, she really only wanted to play one sport in college coming out of high school, and that was volleyball. Despite her success on the soccer field in high school, Robinson said playing college soccer “just wasn’t where my heart was at.” Robinson, who plays the libero position, helped lead her team to a sixth place finish at the NJCAA national tournament in Casper, Wyo., last month, where she was named to the all-tournament team. Earlier in the month, she was named Region 18 Libero of the Year. Robinson was instrumental in helping her team this season qualify for nationals and take sixth place. “I thought she played really well when we beat CSI at home,” NIC head coach Miles Kydd said. “She played better the next weekend and she played better last weekend. So for three weeks in a row, she kept getting better. I already told her at that point she was the best libero I’ve ever coached, so when the best you’ve ever coached keeps getting better, and it was in big moments, right?” Robinson, who is from Hemet, Calif., a city 80 miles southeast from downtown Los Angeles, has relatives who live in Moscow and Lewiston and her dad grew up in Moscow and attended Eastern Washington University. Robinson decided in her sophomore or junior year of high school that she wanted to pursue volleyball in college and not soccer. She visited North Idaho when she was about 10-years-old and said she loved the mountains and snow. Robinson wanted to play volleyball for the University of Idaho, but the school invited her to walk on, and she wanted a scholarship. She said her dad researched other colleges and found NIC. The Lady Cardinals were ranked No. 9 in the nation and they were led by head coach Kandice Gregorak
Wrestling dominates duals
NIC routs teams in Cardinal Duals, claim No. 1 spot in polls
NIC’s Carlos Lozoya (133) gets good position on Konner Hopkins of Highline Community College at the Cardinal Duals Nov. 23. Lozoya pinned Hopkins. Bridget Rogers/Sentinel
Garrett Cabeza Sports Editor The North Idaho College
wrestling team routed Highline Community College (Des Moines, Wash.) 41-4 and Doane College (Crete, Neb.) 52-3 at the Cardinal
Monday, december 9, 2013
Duals Saturday at Christianson Gymnasium. As of last week, the Cardinals are ranked No. 1 in the NJCAA
Russia Robinson was named Region 18 Libero of the Year and selected to the all-tournament team at nationals. Rachel Single-Schwall/
(Kandice Kelly at the time). “I came here and when I came here, Kandice made an offer to me and I took it,” Robinson said. “I saw the school once, got to play with the girls. I was like, well, this is where I really want to be.” Robinson earned Scenic West Athletic Conference (SWAC) honorable mention last season. She led her team with 270 digs and 44 service aces. Robinson said Gregorak really wanted her to be vocal since she was a libero and practically captain of the backcourt. “Towards the end of the year I started to kind of step up a little bit,” Robinson said. “I started to play more, so I think that built up my confidence also. And I started to talk to my team more and I started to take control like she wanted me to. So I definitely think that that was something that carried over into this year was my ability to show some leadership
and to be vocal.” Gregorak resigned after last season and Kydd, who spent four seasons as head coach of Eastern Washington University, took over the head coaching duties at NIC. Kydd said he doesn’t think there was a “Eureka moment” when he realized Robinson’s skill set on the volleyball court, but he did start to notice what kind of person she was during summer camp. Kydd used words like “passion, committed, intelligent and character” to describe her. Robinson finished the 2013 regular season with 5.06 digs/ set (11th in the NJCAA) and was named SWAC Volleyball Player of the Week twice. Robinson has received offers to continue her volleyball career at four-year schools, including Winthrop University (Rock Hill, S.C.) and Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston. Right now, she is undecided.
>BASKETBALL first half. As Columbia was using the outside to their advantage, the Cardinals answered by going to the paint and scoring. By the end of the second half, Columbia Basin was up by two with a 47-45 lead over the Cardinals. Freshman point-guard Brad Wallace started sinking 3-pointers for NIC and bringing the score to 61-56 in favor of the Cardinals. NIC extended its lead to 84-75. “We’re a young team and every game we are getting a lot better,” Dorsey said. Against Blue Mountain, Leavitt scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Cardinals past the Timberwolves 89-70 Dec. 1. “I think our depth was big,” Phay said. “We can kind of go to our bench and we don’t re-
ally have a drop off there and I think when they go to their bench there’s a little bit of a drop off.” Braxton Tucker also scored 19 points to go along with five rebounds and Dorsey had 18 points, 3 assists and 3 steals. The game stayed close in the first half until NIC went on a 10-0 scoring run. The Cardinals (11-2 heading into Sunday) led the Timberwolves 45-34 at halftime after Dorsey’s drive to the basket and layup as time ran out to end the half. In the second half, freshman forward Shikei Blake extended NIC’s lead to 55-46 on an inbounds play. He passed the ball off of a defender’s back and dunked. “Our speed helped us a lot,” Leavitt said. “We had a lot of guys that would run the court. We have a lot of quick guys and we were able to just get out and outrun them a little bit and outwork them a little bit towards the end of the game.”
polls. Freshmen Carlos Lozoya (133), Terrance McKinney (141) and Matt Hopkins (184) earned pins in both duals for NIC. “They’re starting to not be freshman as much,” NIC head coach Pat Whitcomb said. “Now they’ve gotten enough matches under their belt that they’re more experienced.” After opening up both duals with losses in the 125-pound division, NIC proceeded to win its next nine matches in each dual. In those next nine matches against Doane, the Cardinals won eight of them by pins.
“The last couple weeks we’ve really been picking it up in the practice room, working really hard, really coming together as a team,” said NIC’s V.J. Giulio. Giulio beat Highline’s Tyler Cormier 10-1 before pinning Doane’s Kyle Hoffman. McKinney pinned Josh Smith of Highline in 1:36 and Ray Feigenbutz of Doane in 43 seconds. “At first (at the beginning of the season) I was nervous,” McKinney said. “But then once I got into it, I feel a lot better and I’ve just started pinning people lately.” McKinney also said Jeremy Golding, Nico Moreno and Tyler Mclean have helped him improve.
from page 9