MVHS Tennis
By ELISE DALLEY
It was an exhilarating day for the Pirate tennis team on Thursday, Sept. 8. The Pirates hosted a match against Boulder City, one of their toughest competitors in their division.
Both the boys and girls tennis teams put their best efforts into the game, and with success. For the first time in about eight years, the Moapa Valley Boys Tennis team defeated Boulder City, with an ending score of 10-8.
The girls were not quite as successful, losing 3-15 but still had good strokes, serves, and overall, good playing techniques.
“Boulder City has always been a big competitor of ours,” said MVHS Coach Donna Swanson. “And we have always urged the players to work hard and play their best against them. The effects of this match showed how important that hard work is.”
MVHS sophomore Garret Hadley won 3-0 on the boys side, beating one of the Eagles’ big contenders in singles. All three of Hadley’s matches were victorious and even went into a tiebreaker.
On the girls side, senior Savannah Aikele also did a spectacular job, and won all three of her matches.
Swanson expressed her pride for the team and the big accomplishment it was to beat Boulder.
“Boulder has always had a strong team,” she said. “We are happy to have finally been on the winning side. It was a bit of a nail biter, and we were down to the wire but they were diligent and worked hard and we were victorious.”
VVHS Tennis
By BOB SNELL
Virgin Valley High School made it a clean sweep last week picking up victories on the road over both Canyon Springs and Cheyenne in Las Vegas.
Against Canyon Springs, the VVHS boys defeated the Pioneers 15-3 while the girls triumphed 12-0.
Angel Garcia and T.J. Guerrero won both of their singles matches for the Bulldogs while Lincoln Toone won his lone singles match.
In doubles play, Gunner McComie and Jacob Hafen won both of their matches for VVHS.
On the girls side, Canyon Springs fielded just one doubles team while forfeiting the rest of its matches. Virgin Valley’s doubles team of Sadie Cowley and McKadie Cowley picked up the win.
Against Cheyenne, both the VVHS boys and girls team won by a score of 12-0.
Garcia, Guerrero and Toone won their singles matches for the boys. Cheyenne did not have a doubles team.
On the girls side, Brynn Andrus, Sydnee Anderson and Shari Brumaghin all won their respective singles matches while the Cowley sisters captured their lone doubles match.
Virgin Valley will play two matches in Las Vegas this week against Coral Academy of Science and Western. The next home match will be Sept. 20 against The Meadows.
VVHS Boys Soccer
By LOU MARTIN
The Bulldogs held their own for three quarters against SLAM Academy on Tuesday, Sept. 6 at home. Then they withered in triple digit heat with a final score of 6-2, SLAM.
“We will be attacking defensively more than we did in the past,” VVHS head coach Junior Flores stated before the match began.
His scheme did not work initially as the Bulls struck goal two minutes into the match on a breakaway by Bull striker Marco Navarro.
But the Bulldogs defense did not let up. They attacked the Bulls side with aggressive play but could not score until Coach Flores brought in Zach Trimming, one of the top under-18 players in the country. Trimming made his presence known early, dribbling his way past defenders to strike goal at the 20 minute mark tying the match at 1-1.
The Dawgs had the opportunity to score minutes later but Trimming’s shot went off the left stanchion. The Bulls corner kick shortly thereafter was saved by a good stop by Dawgs keeper Daniel Isidro.
The Dawgs had a good opportunity to take the lead at the 40 minute mark but Trimmings passed to a teammate who missed the shot.
The Bulls sensing the clock running down for the first half moved their defensemen up loading the box and scored goal on a smash by Josiah Lemburg. The whistle blew shortly ending the period with the Bulls up 2-1.
The Dawgs did seem more aggressive in the period as Trimming acted as an on-field assistant coach. Keeper Isidro had three saves in the period.
The Bulldogs continued their aggressive play to begin the second period attacking the Bulls keeper with two shots before Trimming hit freshman teammate Andrae Duran on the run, who placed the ball through the Bulls keeper to tie the match at 2-2 with 30 minutes remaining.
The Dawgs continued to attack but could not reach goal as the Bulls keeper blocked their attempts.
Minutes later the Bulls turned the flow of the game with an aggressive defense of their own boxing up the Dawgs to score two goals within a minute of each other. The Bulls would add two more goals minutes prior to the whistle, the final a breakaway by Navarro.
The Bulldogs offense seemed to fade late in the match. The final score Bulls 6-2 over the host Bulldogs.
“We played a good game, back and forth,” said Flores. “They were frustrated and I felt we had them where we wanted them. But in the second half our boys ran out of steam and could not close out.”
“We need to get better conditioned as we are building a strong team,” Flores added. “We still need to get two injured players back which will help.”
The Bulldogs will host archrival Moapa Valley on Monday and Cheyenne on Tuesday September 12 and 13.
