The Pershing County High School volleyball team played a pair of road games this past weekend.
On Friday, the JV and varsity Lady Mustangs challenged White Pine in Ely and on Saturday, they faced West Wendover.
“Only having seven players, we felt the sting of playing four sets against White Pine,” said varsity coach, Monica Halverson. “But, the girls rallied around each other and played as a team.”
The varsity team lost to White Pine (26-24, 21-25, 10-25, 21-25).
“It was an amazing, high-paced game,” said the coach. “We had great offensive movement and covered the court. My team fought for each point and generated awesome energy.”
Daralyn Moura, the senior captain, recorded 19 digs and two ace serves.
Presley Burrows, a junior, added 11 kills and two aces. Makenna Houston, a senior, placed her serves to win key points for the Lady Mustangs.
On Saturday, the squad lost to West Wendover, (26-24, 25-19, 24-26, 22-25, 14-16).
“Our team came out playing hard, but underestimated our opponent,” said the coach. “Our complacency on defense cost us quite a few points. The Wolverines covered the court well and kept sending the ball back.”
Nonetheless, Burrows slammed in 27 kills. Moura added 19 digs. Houston had six ace serves.
“Makenna and Josie (Crim) were quite the setting-hitting team,” said Halverson.
Alyssa Montes, a senior, played an impressive second set, said the coach.
“Alyssa’s good first passes helped us set up our offense,” she added.
The third set turned into a firefight. Early on, the Wolverines trailed by 22-11 but they fought back to win the set by two points.
“It was disappointing, to say the least, but we’re using it as a way to practice harder to better our skills for our upcoming match against North Tahoe,” said Halverson. “This will be a fun season with a lot of growth. I’m proud of our team for working together.”
The JV girls, coached by Nancy Meissner, lost to White Pine on Friday (25-27, 12-25). But they bounced back on Saturday to beat West Wendover in three sets (25-27, 25-19, 15-9).
Pershing County’s nine-girl JV team set up the ball and covered the court, according to the coach.
“But we made too many serving errors which meant we were in defense too much,” she said. “Our struggles with consistency cost us the match.”
Kaydance Happy led the scoring against Ely with six points from two aces. Aimee Carpenter scored five points from one ace.
Happy and Carpenter each had two kills. Isabela Rosas had one kill and two assists.
Other serving points came from Cheyeanne Diaz, Senicka Happy and Kaylen Halverson. Diaz had two points, both aces. Happy had three points. Halverson contributed two. She also had four assists.
On Saturday, Pershing County competed against West Wendover.
“The Lady Wolverines are a scrappy team,” said Meissner. “They dug up a lot of attacks and our girls had to hit around their players. It was a hard-fought game with long rallies.”
Rosas had ten kills. Carpenter and Kaydance Happy each added two. Diaz and Hannah Montes each supplied one more.
Halverson had 11 assists. Rosas added two. Carpenter and Kaydance Happy each added one.
“Diaz was our leading passer,” said Meissner. “She had help from Andrea Canchola and Senicka Happy.
The top server was Carpenter with 10 points from three aces. Diaz had 11 points from one ace. Rosas added seven points from one ace. Other serving points came from Halverson (six points), Senicka Happy (four) and Kaydance Happy (three points).
“Unfortunately, one of our servers, Faith Jones, became ill during our match,” said Meissner. “But, I’m looking forward to her future contributions to the team.”
“Throughout both games, we made huge gains in our passing abilities,” said Meissner. Andrea Canchola, Cheyeanne Diaz, Senicka Happy and Hannah Montes passed straight to the setters, she said.
On Wednesday, the JV and varsity teams travel to North Tahoe.
They’ll play their first home game on Wednesday, Sept. 18, against Silver Stage. JV opens the action at 4 p.m. Varsity follows at 5 p.m.
