Lady Pirates Continue Long Winning Streak

By NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

The Moapa Valley High School Volleyball dominated the court last week as they took on three opponents and defeated all of them in three-up-three-down matches.

The Lady Pirates have not lost a single set in 18 straight sets. The last time they lost was when they fell behind 1-2 to bigger school Galena back on Aug. 21.

The Lady Pirates started last week’s play on Monday, Sept. 20 against Pinecrest Academy Cadence in Las Vegas. The score was 25-15, 25-8, 25-18.

The big news of the night was the near-superhuman play by Sydney Reese who had 15 kills and 4 aces in the match.

Offensively, the Pirates took a very balanced approach. Talley Blackwell added an impressive 10 kills. Emily Matheson added 28 assists and 3 kills herself.

On Wednesday, the Pirates continued took on Desert Pines at home, winning in three sets: 25-11, 25-6, 25-8.

The team started off slow allowing the Jaguarsto jump out to an early 2-5 lead in the first set. However, something switched over for the Pirates and they had a couple of aces in a row which tied up the score, 5-5. The energy kicked in from there and their Pirates customary bump, set, spike flow picked up.

The second and third sets were dominated by the Lady Pirates who only allowed 14 total points to the Jaguars.

The Lady Pirates had 4 aces from Alyssa Jolley and 4 aces from Edyn Bennet. Jolley also added 7 kills. At one time Moapa Valley High School had 4 straight aces and then 7 aces out of 8 plays in the second set.

The third set also was given to the non-starters. Even so, the team continued to play strong, especially in serving. Aces continued as another 8 ace run was recorded by the Lady Pirates. The non-starters held the Jaguars to only 8 points in the third set.

On Friday, the Pirates traveled to Clark which was still was no match for the team. They Moapa team showed some very disciplined play from the middle back players. Clark being a more skilled team, especially defensively, provided a little more challenge. But the duo of Rachel Lyman and Terra Evans proved to be a huge strength and powered the team to the victory they were seeking.
The score was still 3-0 in sets of 25-10, 25-19, 25-11.

Sydney Reese led the team with 16 kills. She left the night with a .576 hitting statistic for the night. Clark’s leading offensive player Amadi Wood proved why she is their top player as she now has 105 kills for the season.

“The girls are improving each game and they continue to be motivated,” stated Head Coach Mandie Matheson. “This week’s matchups include Boulder City and Pahrump. These will be super competitive and we are excited to play them!”

The Lady Pirates will be meeting Boulder City on Tuesday, Sept. 28 starting at 6:00 pm at their home court. The Trojans will welcome the Pirates on Thursday, Sept. 30 at 6 pm.

At the moment, MVHS is ranked 1st in Division and 9th in state, including all division levels of all high schools.