The Pershing County High School volleyball team settled an old score on Friday night.
As Mustang fans may remember, Incline beat the Mustangs twice last season and won the league championship. The Mustangs set a goal of beating them this year.
On Friday, Pershing County traveled to Incline Village and defeated the Highlanders in four sets 25-20, 22-25, 25-21, 25-15.
With the win, Pershing County stands at 11-6 overall and 6-1 in the Northern 2A.
They are among the top three teams in the 2A, along with Yerington and North Tahoe. Each team has lost only one league game.
“The girls were fired up to be playing a longtime rival,” coach Monica Halverson said. “With new coaching staff at Incline we weren’t sure what we were up against. Incline got us with a couple of great hits from the right side. The second set we came out flat. Incline kept the momentum and led the whole set. We had to battle in sets three and four to get the win.”
However, the Mustangs controlled the game from a defensive perspective. With good communication, the setters (Anna Happy and Kaylen Halverson) and libero (Taylor Garland) adjusted and covered more of the court.
Garland, a junior, improves her accuracy with each game.
Against Incline, she added three impressive back row attack kills, 22 digs and two aces.
Anna Happy had five aces, one kill, one solo block, ten assists and 12 digs. Halverson had four aces and one kill, 17 assists and ten digs.
“I’m proud of the teamwork I’m seeing on the court and the girl’s ability to stay focused each set. We have set-backs but they’ve learned to work through them and fight for each point,” Halverson said.
Raegan Burrows led the attack against Incline with ten kills, an ace and 13 digs. Yasmine McKinney added six kills and two digs. Andrea Canchola had four digs. Aaliyah Allen added two kills, five solo blocks and three digs. Kaydance Happy contributed six kills, three solo blocks and six digs.
“Our team is much better when we start each set with the serve. For some reason, it gives us the disadvantage when we serve receive. This is something we will be working on in practice this week because we have big games coming up that we need to be physically and mentally ready for,” Halverson added.
On Friday, the Mustangs travel to Yerington to play the Lions, another top rival.
It will be Yerington’s Homecoming night. The JV plays at 3 p.m.. followed by the varsity at 4 p.m.
On Saturday, Pershing County hosts Silver Stage at 11 a.m. and noon.
