By BOB SNELL
The Progress
Playing in its inaugural season, the Virgin Valley High School boys volleyball team recorded its first win in program history by defeating visiting Founders Classical Academy of Las Vegas, 3-0, on Thursday evening, Mar. 23.
The Bulldogs, who improved to 1-5 overall, won by scores of 25-11, 25-15 and 25-10 over the Centurions, which fell to 0-2.
Both schools are in the first year of participating in boys volleyball and are playing as independents this season.
“It’s always nice to get a win,” VVHS head coach Kortney Tobler said. “It was good for our program to win and good for our players. We’re definitely making progress.”
It helped that the Bulldogs were facing a fellow first-year program.
“It was nice to play someone we are comparable with,” Tobler said. “They (FCALV) are in the same situation as us, trying to build a program.”
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 16-7 lead in game one behind the serving of Rom Gagliano and Alex Rivera and play at the net by Destry Tobler and Angel Rosas-Jimenez. Tobler’s kill set up game point and Jimenez sealed the win with a block at the net.
VVHS grabbed control in the second game behind the serving of Tobler and Parker Jensen as the Bulldogs took a 22-13 advantage and were not threatened the rest of the way.
In the final game, Virgin Valley built up an early 15-5 lead. Rivera’s kill punctuated the victory on match point as the Bulldog players celebrated the program’s first win.
“We keep progressing,” Tobler said. “Hopefully we should be able to compete with teams the rest of the season.”
Destry Tobler had nine kills, six digs and three aces to lead the Bulldogs. Gagliano had four kills and four service aces while a trio of players – Parker Jensen, Rosas-Jimenez and Rivera – had three kills each. Rivera also had nine digs and Andrew Giles four. Nate Panjaitan was credited with 21 assists.
Wednesday night, the Bulldogs won their first ever set during a 3-1 road loss to Valley of Las Vegas.
After dropping the first set 25-19, VVHS came back to win game two 25-22. But the Vikings bounced back to take the next two games 25-23 and 25-16 to improve to 1-2 on the season.
Tobler recorded 10 kills, 11 digs and two aces for VVHS. Gagliano had seven kills with Panjaitan adding six kills to go along with 24 assists. Rivera had 11 digs and Giles seven while Jimenez added two aces.
