By Mike Donahue

Moapa Valley Progress

The Lady Pirate Volleyball team held its own against some powerful opponents last weekend at the Las Vegas Invitational giving coach Mandie Matheson reason for optimism for the upcoming season.

“I was really pleased with the team’s performance overall,” Matheson said. “Although we lost more matches than we won we managed to make it to the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket before losing out.”

This year’s Las Vegas Invitational at Cashman Field Center hosted some 40 teams from all over the west and the Pirates faced some of the best.

Friday, the Pirates played Coronado and Arbor View, both of Las Vegas, and Skyline of Salt Lake City.

Matheson said that although the MVHS team lost the three matches, “we held our own and did pretty well through two.

“The Skyline team, however, was one of the top teams in the tournament and we struggled against them,” the coach said. “There were a couple of players that were probably over 6 feet tall.”

During the Skyline game the Lady Pirates lost a little of the intensity they had displayed in earlier games suffering their worst loss of the invitational.

Saturday morning, however, everything seemed to click for the team and it was able to defeat Sunrise Mountain. That led to a seed in the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket where the Pirates eventually lost.

“I’m really pleased with the team’s performance,” Matheson said. “We really only struggled in that one game Friday, but then we came back and played well.”