BATTLE MOUNTAIN - Battle Mountain High School sponsored an invitational volleyball tournament this past Friday and Saturday for teams at both the junior varsity and varsity levels.
The Lady Longhorns claimed first place in the varsity tournament, beating Tonopah for the championship. Other teams that were in the tournament were Carlin, Owyhee, Sierra Lutheran, Silver Stage and Wells.
"We finally have all the players on our team eligible to play," said BMHS head coach Sondra Torgerson. "We did pretty well considering we had only practiced this lineup for three days before the tournament. The past two weekends we had struggled with our passing and I was pleased with the improvement we showed in that skill this weekend. Our serve receive and our defense did a much better job of passing the ball to the target to set up our offense."
All seven teams played in a round robin format and then were seeded into a single-elimination bracket tournament. Battle Mountain finished the round robin play in first place, earning a bye into the bracket play.
The Lady Longhorns (12-9) beat Carlin by the scores of 25-0 (forfeit) and 25-10 and followed that with a 25-16 and 25-19 victory over Wells. Battle Mountain went on to beat Owyhee 25-9 and 25-20 and Sierra Lutheran 25-17 and 25-23. To finish off pool play, the Lady Longhorns knocked off Tonopah 25-21 and 25-23 and finally Silver Stage 25-21 and 25-16.
In the bracket portion of the tournament on Saturday, Battle Mountain opened with Sierra Lutheran and beat the Vikings 25-18 and 27-25. The championship match was against Tonopah, which was a repeat of last year's tournament. However, this time the outcome favored the Lady Longhorns. It took Battle Mountain three games to put the Muckers away, with scores of 25-22, 19-25 and 15-8.
"The first game we were a bit too relaxed and made a few mental mistakes, but we were able to pull out a win," Torgerson said. "However, we got down in the second game and looked pretty tired and down in the dumps. So I was proud when the girls fired up and went into the third game playing with confidence. We took the lead and finished strong till the win was ours."
The coach said that Gabby Cruz did a very good job in the back row leading the team in digs and that overall their serving was strong.
"We are trying to serve tougher serves this season which means there might be a few more missed serves," Torgerson said. "It was nice having Abbie (Mikelson) back on the front row and she led the hitters in kills. She is playing back row this year and she did a good job of serving and passing."
Battle Mountain is on the road this weekend for two matches against Lahontan League foes. The Lady Longhorns are in Yerington Friday for a 5 p.m. match with the defending state champions. On Saturday, Battle Mountain is in Lovelock for a 1 p.m. start against Pershing County.
"Our other hitters Kelsey (Kroll), Samantha (Samuelson), Kalin (Nelson) and Hannah (Hale) all did a good job at the net," Torgerson said. "We have more of an arsenal at the net this year then we have had the past couple of years. Hannah and Kelsey are also helping us with more blocking power. I feel confident that this team will continue to gel together as a team and improve greatly through the season. This will be a tough weekend, but we always seem to get up and play well against Lovelock. I think it will be an exciting match on Saturday."
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