By STEPHANIE BUNKER
Moapa Valley Progress
The Lady Pirate Volleyball team is back in action. They had their first home game on Wednesday night against Eldorado High School. The Moapa team was able to pull off a win in 3 games.
“The girls came in pretty good,” said MVHS Volleyball Coach Mandie Matheson. “They let up in the 2nd game and had too many unforced errors. But by the 3rd game they put it away.”
The girls played a strong first game defeating the Sundevils 25-16. The Pirates started off slow allowing a few unanswered Sundevil points. But they soon warmed up an took the lead.
The Pirates began dialing in when Eldorado served the ball to Marissa Perez who passed it to Cheyenne Leavitt. Leavitt shot the ball over the net where Eldorado lost control bringing the score to 6-3 in favor of the Pirates.
Delia Rubio aced the ball as she served over the net into a hole left by the Sundevils bringing the score to 11-4.
Mackenzie Bush made several strong hits throughout the game and Eldorado began to expect those fast balls from her. Just at that point, Bush took the opposing team off guard by tapping the ball lightly over the net. Eldorado wasn’t able to recover bringing the score to 19-10.
Later in the game the ball was vollied back and forth over the net. Marissa Perez hustled to the ball that was just out of her reach wasn’t able to complete the pass. The score was 24-15, bringing the MV team to game point.
Once again the Pirates lost the ball when Eldorado sent it over to Mackenzie Bush who wasn’t able to return it back. In the end Moapa won the first game 25-16.
Moapa Valley and Eldorado stayed neck and neck throughout the second game. Moapa gave away the first point as Emily Mills and Bush hit the ball into the net. Once again the ball didn’t go over the net as Perez passed it to Mills; and Alex Peterson was unsuccessful in her attempt to tap the ball over making the score 0-2.
Finally the Pirates scored their first point as Makendie Frei, Mills, and Bush worked together to send the ball over the net where the Sundevils lost control.
Still Eldorado crept up in points with MV following close behind. Frei served the ball out giving Eldorado another point for the scoreboard, 2-5. Then the Sundevils found a hole in the Pirates court earning them another point.
The Pirates finally began finding Eldorado’s holes as they started to get their head back in the game. Slowly the Pirates pulled ahead.
Bush aced the ball into the back corner making the score 14-9. Leavitt and Mills worked together to get the ball over the net but were blocked by Eldorado. Moapa wasn’t able to recover the ball losing the point 14-10.
Throughout the rest of the game the Pirates stayed only a few points ahead.
Towards the end of the game, Leavitt smartly tapped the ball over the net bringing Moapa to game point. Eldorado served the ball into the net which gave MV the win with a score of 25-23.
The Lady Pirates kept their momentum going into the 3rd game and racked up the points quickly. Many of the points gained by the Lady Pirates came from mistakes made by Eldorado. But when the Pirates came to game point they began to have problems of their own. The audience tensed as 6 mistakes were made by the Pirates as they sat at game point, not able to make that last score to win the game. Finally Eldorado helped them gain the final game point by serving the ball into the net. The score of the final game was 25-15.
Eldorado coach, Shequieta Waite was proud of her girls.
“They (The Pirates) won on a solid team, but our girls brought it!” Waite said. “We are a pretty new team and have a lot to work on, we need to get used to working as a team and get used to working together,” said Waite.
Matheson reported that her team still has girls easing back into the game after recovering from injuries. She has had to bring up players from the JV squad to fill some of the holes.
“We have got to get everyone healthy and know where we are at and where to put people,” Matheson said.
