Pirate Sports Roundup (March 17, 2021)

The Progress

Girls soccer
The MVHS Girls’ Soccer team hosted 4A Faith Lutheran on the on Tuesday, Mar. 9. The skilled Faith team beat the Pirates on the home field in Logandale.
“It was a pretty decisive loss, but considering who we were playing, one of the top teams in the state, the girls gave all they had,” said MVHS Head Coach Lisa Cornwall.

The MVHS team has been willing to take on all comers in this shortened season. But there haven’t been a lot of opponents for them to go up against. With the exception of Virgin Valley, all other CCSD schools are required to sit on the sidelines this season because they are not attending live classes. That leaves few opponents for the Pirates.

“We have had a lot of charter schools that have just cancelled their seasons,” Cornwall said. “So the only opportunity we have to play is going up against these awesome teams from big schools in Las Vegas.”

While it is tough to compete with that level of playing, Cornwall praised her team for making the effort anyway.
“They have been super good at taking that challenge,” Cornwall said. “Even though we lost, they were able to watch these amazing girls play and be motivated to want to play that way too.”

The MVHS team will have at least one worth opponent this week when they go up against the Bulldogs of Virgin Valley on Thursday, Mar. 18 at 5 pm on the Pirate’s field.

Boys soccer
Last week the MVHS Boys’ Soccer team played twice and lost both games.

The Pirates started the week against Faith Lutheran on Tuesday, Mar. 9, and were beaten 4-1. Zack Bailey scored the lone goal for the Pirates. Moapa trailed just 2-1 at halftime. Danny Bailey had 30 saves during the game.
“Danny played a great game,” said head coach Randy Tobler.

Radley Tobler and Dillon Jones play solid defensively.

The second game of the week was against Cristo Rey on Thursday, Mar. 11. There Cristo Rey beat the Pirates 4-3 at Moapa Valley.

Zack Bailey scored twice for the Pirates with CJ Anderson scoring the third goal. Cristo Rey had one very good player as they scored 3 goals in the first half building a lead.
“We had a lot of shots on goal,” said Tobler. “We just couldn’t get anything in the net.”

The Pirates made some adjustments at halftime but couldn’t make the complete comeback.
The Pirates travel to Bishop Gorman on Tuesday then host Pahrump Valley Friday.

Volleyball
The MVHS Girls Volleyball team had a tough week as they learned about playing the ever-tough private 4A schools of Bishop Gorman and Faith Lutheran on the road.

“We may not be able to recruit like those schools do, but we still were able to compete against them,” said MVHS Head Coach Mandie Matheson. “And we did give them a challenge.”

On Wednesday, March 10, the team traveled to Faith Lutheran where they ran into strong serving and a killer showing from the outside hitters who could not be stopped. Isabella Guerrero and Claudia Grepke led Faith Lutheran in downing the Pirates with unbelievable kill power, as Pirates lost 11-25, 19-25. 15-25.

But there were some highlights as Talley Blackwell and Halle Evans had 5 kills each.
Faith Lutheran is now 3-0 for the season while the Lady Pirates were 1-1 headed back home against an undefeated Bishop Gorman on March 12.

Bishop Gorman was a different showing for Pirates as they opened up strong with a 25-18 win in the first set. The strong play continued even though they dropped the next two sets, 15-25 and 20-25.
“We fought well with them until the middle of the 3rd set and they got hot while we got in a rut!” Matheson said.

The Lady Pirates dropped the 4th set 7-25, to an “on-fire” Gorman team.
“I was very pleased with our girls’ overall performance. I just wished we had more fight in the last set,” Matheson said.

Sydney Reese held her own at the net with 6 kills and 6 blocks. Strong defensive showings from Maddy Frederick and Emilie Lyon helped keep the match competitive.

“Our focus going into this week is to crisp up our defense and serve to receive to passing,” added Coach Matheson.

The Lady Pirates are now 1-2 and head into the week facing Sports Leadership and Management Academy (SLAM) at their campus on March 16th and then Amplus Academy at home. JV starts to play both days at 4 pm while Versity is scheduled at 5 pm

Cross country
The Pirates travelled to Faith Lutheran last Saturday for their meet against Pahrump Valley, Faith Lutheran, Lincoln County, Pinecrest and Coral Academy of Science.

The Boys finished first with senior Preston Humes winning the event with a time of 14:57. Sophomore Cyrus Katich placed second with a time of 15:52.8. Marcus Shambaugh, also a sophomore, finished fourth with a time of 16:10.6. Senior Max Shambaugh finished sixth with a time of 16:47.

In the girls division Faith Lutheran placed first with the Pirates placing second. MVHS junior Emma Humes finished first with a time of 18:14.3. McKinley Bledsoe finished fifth with a time of 21:47.7. Hannah Watson finished ninth with a time of 22:45.7.

Faith Lutheran scored 25 points while the Pirates second place finished with 40 points.
Both Pirate teams will travel to Pinecrest this Saturday.

Tennis
The MVHS Tennis teams served up a win on Friday, March 5, against Lake Mead Academy.
“The Lake Mead Academy was very new to the sport and only brought four players,” stated Assistant Coach Robin Ozaki. “We still played matches since it gave experience, even though we had won by forfeiture.”
Moapa Valley won with a score of 12-0.

The Pirate boys went 6-0 with girls winning all but one in play. Nick Hoy and Hunter Landini played well in singles while Isaac Thompson and Marcus Leavitt added wins in doubles and Braden Leavitt and Aiden Johnson also claimed victory in doubles.

On the girls’ side, Karli Keller and Savannah Aikele pulled off wins in singles play.
Ozaki said that the match was an opportunity to analyze and prep for some teams that will have full rosters.

“We are very happy with the opportunity to play,” Ozaki said. We are blessed! The kids are looking forward to a great season.”

The teams also claimed victory against Adelson on Tuesday, March 9. The Girls’ team won 12-0 with Savannah Aikele beating their strongest player 6-0. Returning seniors and captains Brittnee Leavitt and Kayla Lyon won both of their sets 6-1.

The Boys were closer as the Adelson team had a ranked singles player who beat Moapa’s returning seniors in straight sets,.But strong play from Kolby May, Gavin Hadley, and doubles play from Caleb Dalley and Cole Neilson helped secure the team with the win 12-6.

Neilson was named Player of the Match for Maxpreps and won his sets with Dalley 6-4, 6-2, 6-0.