MVHS Girls Volleyball Takes Tough Loss To Boulder City

By GANNON HANEVOLD

Moapa Valley Progress

All season, the Moapa Valley High School volleyball team has counted down to their home matchup against the rival Boulder City Eagles. Last week, the day finally arrived. And though it didn’t go to plan for the Pirates, they were able to get a good look at a team they hope to see late in November.

Before that though, the Pirates traveled on Monday, October 8, to take on Chaparral. The Cowboys put up a fight for the Pirates. The Moapa team would win the first two sets by scores of 25-12 each. In the third and final set, though, Moapa Valley didn’t walk away easily. A couple errors on the Pirates’ part kept the Cowboys around. The final score was a narrow 25-22.

“The closeness occurred just because we had a lot of service errors that day,” said Pirate coach Mandie Matheson. “They were a better passing team than some we’ve played in our league but it was our unforced errors that caused us to be close in the third.”

On Wednesday, the Pirates took on the Eagles in front of a packed Moapa home audience.
In the first set, the Eagles set the tone by scoring early and often to put the Pirates in a bit of a hole. The Pirates would battle back to make it close but would fall 25-16.

In the second, the story was quite similar. The Eagles struck first and kept Moapa at bay throughout the set. It would end 25-17.

The third set remained close, and the Pirates seemed determined not to give up just yet. However, a couple balls simply didn’t bounce Moapa Valley’s way and the Eagles gained enough momentum to end the set 25-19 and complete the sweep.

With two losses against the Eagles, the Pirates sealed their spot as the Sunrise division second seed, assuming games go to plan as the season winds to a close.

“For us, our passing game was not what we know it can be,” Matheson said. “Boulder City did a great job keeping us out of system. They were serving tough and efficiently and it threw us out a little bit.”
Matheson touched on turning this loss into a learning experience for a Pirate team with their sights set on a state championship tournament the weekend of November 10. “We know what our goals are,” she said. “We need to stay in second place and we need to win those first two games of playoffs for our ticket to state.

Matheson said the team can still use the rest of their regular season to get hot before the important late season faceoff against the Eagles comes again.

“Having that humbling experience refocuses us and helps us see that the next four games are setting us up for success in the region tournament,” Matheson said, “We have to push each other in practice and be those competitors that we’ll see when we hopefully meet the Eagles again.”

The Pirates will still face the rest of their divisional opponents before they can officially call the second seed their own, and each game is as important as ever.