Pirate Volleyball
The Lady Pirates tamed the Mustangs from Meadows Academy on August 24 in Las Vegas. The Moapa team left with a win in straight sets.
This non-league battle resulted with the Pirates clearing the deck with tough serving that was on point and breaking the Meadows’ front line barriers. Extremely tough play was put together by senior Captain Talley Blackwell cannon-balling in six aces while Junior outside hitter Sydney Reese tallied up kill after kill for a total of 12 on the offensive stat. Senior Emily Matheson added a stunning 25 assists.
All of this resulted in a three-up, three-down match with scores of 25-14, 25-19, 25-18 in the Pirate victory.
MVHS Head Coach Mandie Matheson was pleased with her team’s play. “They did very well on their serving and that was the major role in securing the win,” Matheson said.
The Lady Pirates of MVHS now have an unbeaten record of 3-0 with a semifinal finish in a big tournament for the season. They hope to continue the strong play by taking on the Las Vegas Wildcats (1-4) on Thursday, September 2 at 7:00 pm for their home season opener.
Pirate Tennis
The Moapa Valley High School Tennis teams netted themselves some victories for their first home matches of the season against Adelson on August 25.
The Adelson girls’ team had to forfeit to the Lady Pirates due to lack of players. This resulted in a 12-0 win by the Pirates.
However, a few doubles games were played for exhibition. Pirates juniors Savannah Aikele and Shaylee Adams paired up for a 6-1 and 6-0 win. Aikele was named Player of the Match.
On the boys side the Pirates won 12-6. Nick Hoy lost a close singles match 2-3, while Garrett Hadley won easily 6-0, 6-0 in straight sets.
The Doubles team of Cole Neilson and Mason Wheeler dominated with a 3-0 sets win. Neilson was given Player of the Match honors.
It was a tight loss for the doubles team of Aidan Johnson and Braden Leavitt which dropped the match 2-3.
“The Varsity Tennis for both teams are gifted this year,” said Head Coach Donna Swanson. “We have had an influx of new players.”
Two days later, both teams traveled to Western High School in Las Vegas. Both teams claimed victory by forfeiture. Western only had 1 female and 3 male tennis athletes, resulting in wins by scores of 12-0.
“Because of the situation, new players were selected ahead of time to travel to Western’s campus and they got to play and get some experience,” said Swanson. “Those who were selected to go, worked hard during the few games they were able to play.”
The MVHS Girls Tennis has a full roster of 22 student athletes while the Pirate Boys match the same amount of athletes on their roster this year. Captains are selected out of 4 year players, but unfortunately the Girls have none that have those qualifications. Savannah Aikele (Jr), Shaylee Adams (Jr), Carlaya Christensen (Sr), and Sophia Rowley (Jr) have stepped up and filled the roles when needed. Cole Neilson (Sr) is the only one on the Boy’s roster that fulfills the requirements as Captain.
Both teams are coached by Donna Swanson who is in her 16th year coaching the Pirates and Robbin Ozaki as Assistant Coach, who both have helped build a very powerful and strong program that has not been seen since the days of the 1990’s under former Coaches Mike Reese and Travis Griffiths.
The teams go on the road for the next two matches against Boulder City on the Aug. 30 and then Mojave on the Sept. 1 The next home match is against Pahrump on Sept. 14.
Cross Country
Cross Country teams from all across the region competed in the Red Rock Running Invitational at Floyd Lamb State Park on Saturday, Aug. 28.
The Moapa Valley High School boys team tied for first place in the meet with a very strong Centennial team. Both Moapa Valley and Centennial scored 50 points.
MVHS junior, Cyrus Katich finished the 3-mile course in fourth place and was the top finisher for the Pirates with a time of 16:24.3. The first place finisher in the race was Logan Scott of Faith Lutheran who ran the race with a time of 15:37.5.
MVHS junior Marcus Shambaugh finished fifth with a time of 16:40.9. Ethan Witter finished seventh at 16:43.2. Trevor Witter was fourteenth at 17:15.2 and Kayden Dixon ran it at 18:13.2 to round out the top five for the Pirates.
The top Virgin Valley High School finisher was Owen Rappleye with a time of 17:47.9 in seventeenth place.
Other finishers were Joseph Boss, Jedidiah Stephens, William Anderson, Joseph Barnes, Noah Christensen, Nicholas Leavitt and Braxton Farley; all running for MVHS. Dylan Barnum also finished the race for VVHS.
In the girls race, Moapa Valley’s Emma Humes came away with first place in the event with a time of 18:34. Kenzie Hughes placed twenty fifth at 22:29.8. The girls didn’t have five runners in the race to qualify for a team.
Jenna Walters was the lone Bulldog running the race. She placed twenty seventh with a time of 22:57.7.
The 3,000 meter Newcomers’ Girls race had a couple of new Pirates participating. Linn Engelgren, an exchange student from Sweden placed third in the race with a time of 12:34.8. Sasha Barnes placed 16th, Julie Vallat 26th, and Emilia Reithmeier 36th all ran the race as well.
Virgin Valley had Avery Somerville in the newcomers’ race who placed 49th.
On the boys’ side of the Newcomers’ heat, both teams had a strong turnout of runners.
Cash Keller of MVHS ended in 29th place at 11:48.4. Russell Hardy, also of MVHS, was in 33rd place at 11:50.6. Moapa runner Isaac Thompson ended this race in 41st place with 11:58.4. Right behind him was VVHS runner Isaac Grieg at 11:59.9.
Other Pirate runners in the race included Logan Harris, Gavin Hendricks, Grant Muhlestein, Stockton Humes and Christopher Houston.
Also completing the Newcomers’ race for VVHS were Riley Averett, Michael Anderson, Bryant Denninghoff, Jesus Sandoval, Max Hughes, Joshua Matthews, Travis Terry and Oliver West.
