Miner trio grabs all league awards

WALLACE — A trio of Lady Miners were recently named to the North Star All-League Volleyball Team for their excellent play this season.

Senior Kali Davis, along with sophomores Riley Valley and Jaden House, were named to the team after leading them to a successful 10-7 season record.

“I feel like we as a team put in a lot of work this year,” Davis said. “I know the three of us went to every possible camp that we could and we were in the weight room every morning. Our success this year was because of that hard work.”

The hard work paid off as the Miners cruised through most of their league schedule and only seemed to struggle against league champion Clark Fork and the bigger schools on their schedule.

The three have been playing club volleyball together outside their regular season team, which helped build the chemistry that could be seen when they were on the floor together.

With a new coach, there always comes change and for these girls it was a necessary one.

“Coach (Katie) Bauer was intense,” House said. “Not in a bad way, it’s like she knew how to be intense with us at an appropriate level and she knew how to handle coaching girls. It really worked out well for us.”

Davis is moving on and both House and Valley admitted that they will be missing her next season, but they’ll likely feed off the leadership that she exemplified during her time with the program.

“I think my favorite part of the season was how well we all worked together as a team,” Valley said. “It was a really good season and we had a great team dynamic. It was a fun season.”

Wallace gained invaluable experience this year, especially in their district play-in game against Lapwai.

Unlike previous years where the teams had struggled to compete with their Whitepine League contemporaries, this year The Miners were every bit equals to their opposition, they just came up a little bit short.

“We led in all four sets,” Davis said. “We fought really hard, it was a really good matchup for both teams. I think the mental aspect is what got us, but we were right there with them.”

This was one of Wallace’s best squads in some time, which was evident by the number of selections.

Coach Bauer was thrilled for her girls and spoke at length about their well deserved awards.

“Riley and Jaden were huge for us. Jaden had over 100 kills on the season and accounted for one-third of our team kills,” Bauer said. “She also served over 90 percent. Riley was crucial to our offensive attack as setter. Everything we do goes through Riley and she was the only player on our team to be voted to the all-tournament team at Genesee this year.

“Senior Kali Davis had over 100 digs on the season, but her biggest contribution was as a co-captain; she was the heart and soul of our team this year and we will miss her tremendously.”