By Mike Donahue
Moapa Valley Progress
The Lady Pirate Varsity Volleyball team played some excellent ball last week taking its home opener against Chaparral High School Thursday, sweeping four teams Friday in the Meadows Invitational in Las Vegas and then ending its tournament run in second place Saturday morning.
“The girls really played some outstanding volleyball,” said Coach Mandie Matheson. “There was a lot of intensity and some extra effort by the entire team.”
In the run to the Meadows Invitational championship game that was played Saturday, the Lady Pirates handily beat The Meadows, Mountain View and Desert Pines in Friday matches. In the best two out of three match with White Pine County, the Pirates won the first game, narrowly lost the second and then came back to take the third.
Saturday morning the Pirates lost to Pershing County, then beat the Meadows to advance to the championship game where the team lost once again to Pershing.
“Pershing was really a great all-around team although we played well overall,” Matheson said.
Outstanding performances throughout the Invitational by Lady Pirates Emma Eira and Malary Reid earned them a place on the All Tournament Team, Matheson said.
In the home opener Thursday in the Moapa Valley High School gym, the Pirates beat out a smaller but aggressive Chaparral team in the best of five series.
The highlights of the match were the 10 kills by Malary Reid and five service aces by Ashley Noto.
