Carson volleyball holds off stubborn Greenwave

By LARRY BARKER

Nevada Appeal News Service

After its first game against Fallon on Thursday, it looked like the Carson High School volleyball team would cruise to a quick victory.

The Senators dominated the first game, winning 25-8. But then the Greenwave came back to take the second game, 26-24. Fallon built a 9-3 lead and never trailed the rest of the way.

"We came out strong in the first game," Carson coach Justin Malley said. "Then Fallon regrouped and came back strong, and we found ourselves in a battle."

The Senators knew they had to shift into a higher gear, and they did. Carson won the next two games, 25-21 and 25-19, to take the match three games to one.

The win upped Carson's record to 4-2 in the Sierra League and 20-5 overall.

The Greenwave dropped 0-6 in league and 3-22 overall after their 11th consecutive loss.

The Senators overcame an early 4-2 deficit to build an 8-5 lead in the third game. Consecutive kills by Cameo Lomorri, Shannon Earwood and Lomorri again keyed the rally.

Fallon came back to tie the game at 10, evening the score when the Senators' Brittney Sly hit one into the net. Carson quickly regained the lead on a kill by Blaike King, and built the lead to 20-14, on another Lomorri kill. Fallon would get as close as two at 23-21 before Earwood ended the game with a dink.

"It took us a while to regain our confidence and get our feet back under us," Malley said, "So it wasn't until the fourth game that we found ourselves and picked it back up."

Game four began with four service faults among the first six points combined. Fallon rolled to a 9-3 lead behind a block and a dink by Kenyah Brown, a block by Callie Black and two Earwood errors.

The Senators, however, rallied to go on an 8-1 run to take an 11-10 lead. A kill by King, two dinks and a service ace from Sly and a block by Elysse Virden helped erase the Greenwave's lead.

Things see-sawed back and forth for a while with neither team leading by more than two. Fallon went ahead, 17-16, after an Earwood kill attempt sailed long, but that would be the Greewave's final lead.

Earwood responded with a kill to tie the game for the fifth time and the Senators controlled things from there.

Breanna Anderson, King, and Virden all scored kills down the stretch. Match point came when Fallon's Nicole Rothery hit the ball into the net and it bounced down.

"The key to our win was ball control," Malley said. "Our serve-receive was excellent, and we served tough as well. We were able to keep Callie (Black) " their go-to player " out of their offense. When Fallon's ball control struggled it enabled us to play better defensively."

Malley singled out Lomorri, King and Mavil Diaz for exceptionally good play.

On the other side, Fallon coach Natalie MacDonald wasn't disappointed with the loss.

"This is the best match I've seen them play yet," MacDonald said of her team. "The first game wasn't the best one, but the second, third and fourth were great games. Even though we lost, it was a win in my book."

The Lady Wave's next match is on Tuesday at Wooster at 6 p.m.

DOUGLAS 3, SOUTH TAHOE 0

Douglas (25-1 overall, 6-0 in league) rolled to another Sierra League victory, winning at South Tahoe 25-11, 25-12, 25-22. The Tigers rested many of their starters in the second and third games.

Jessica Waggoner had seven kills, one point, two digs and seven blocks, Jourdan Burke had five kills, seven points, one ace and two blocks, Taryn Williams had five kills, four points, one ace, six digs and four blocks, Jamie Lorntzen had four kills, seven points, one ace, one dig and two blocks, Christine DuPuis had three kills and three blocks, Emily Garcia had two kills and nine blocks and Shannon Dugan had four blocks, four points, one assist and three digs.

Rebecca Antti chipped in three blocks, six points, one assist, two aces and two digs, Jackie Harper had three blocks, four points, 13 assists, one ace and two digs, Megan Mitchell had one block, two points, nine assists and three digs, Bryanna Schinzing had one block, Mia Townsell had 14 digs, three points and three aces, Mysta Townsell had seven digs, three points and Jordan Marsh added two digs, five points and an ace for Douglas.

Douglas (13-2, 5-1) won the junior varsity match 23-25, 25-18, 15-5 and Douglas (10-3, 6-0) won the freshman match 25-13, 25-10.

CARSON FRESHMEN TRIUMPH

The Senators improved to 7-0 on the season with a 25-10, 23-25, 15-12 victory over the Fallon Greenwave.

Angela Augusta led Carson with five kills, followed by Tiana McAllister-Daggs with four.

Carson's Christa McGahuey added three kills and Micaela Vowinkel chipped in with two.

The Senators also got contributions from Kristalee Wolfe (two kills, four assists and one ace), Alyson Christl (one kill and two digs) and Sarah Lushina (one ace and three assists).

GALENA VARSITY SWEEPS WOOSTER

The Grizzlies notched a 25-15, 25-13, 25-8 victory over Wooster to improve to 3-4 in the Sierra League and 11-12 overall.

Galena setter Bree Crook had a busy night, notching 30 assists and four aces.

Emily Aguire had nine kills, two aces and four blocks to lead the Grizzlies attack, while Kim Naut chipped in with eight kills. Casey Burke added six kills.

Brooke Keever paced Galena with five aces and seven blocks, while Danica Vigni notched nine digs and Marn Sauer six. Whitney Robinson added six blocks.

The Grizzlies junior varsity dropped the Colts, 24-26, 25-20 and 15-12, while the Galena freshmen topped Wooster, 25-22 and 25-13.