By BOB SNELL
The Progress
A tough preseason schedule is starting to pay dividends for the Virgin Valley High School boys volleyball team.
The Bulldogs started the season 1-7, but have now won four straight matches to improve to 5-7 overall and 4-1 in the 3A South Desert League.
Virgin Valley opened the season playing in the stacked Arbor View Invitational in North Las Vegas. The Bulldogs faced some strong teams from Arizona, California and Utah, as well as Nevada, going 1-6.
After dropping their league opener to Valley of Las Vegas, the Bulldogs have now reeled off four straight wins to climb near the top of the league standings.
Their latest victim was Cristo Rey St. Viator of Las Vegas, whom the Bulldogs swept, 3-0, Friday night, Mar. 22 inside the VVHS gymnasium.
“I purposely scheduled a tough preseason to get us ready for league play,” VVHS head coach Kortney Tobler said. “Now, it’s starting to pay off for us.”
The Bulldogs gained control early and were never threatened in dispatching the visiting Royals by scores of 25-15, 25-9 and 25-15.
It also allowed Tobler to substitute freely and give her bench some valuable playing time. “We got to play a lot of kids that haven’t played much,” Tobler said. “It was fun to get them some game experience.”
Dagen Memmott had six kills and three service aces for Virgin Valley. Parker Jensen led the team in kills with nine while Bryant Denninghoff and Destry Tobler had five apiece. Alonzo Roque recorded 18 assists while Nate Panjaitan had 11. Aiden Muniz was credited with 11 digs.
Earlier in the week, the Bulldogs swept Pinecrest Academy-Cadence at home by scores of 25-16, 25-18 and 25-22. McKay Mulitalo had a big night for VVHS with 13 kills, seven digs and four service aces while Panjaitan had 32 assists and six digs.
The Bulldogs followed up by sweeping Somerset Academy-Losee, 31-29, 25-21 and 25-16, on the road in North Las Vegas on Wednesday. Tobler led the way with 10 kills and 11 digs with Mulitalo adding nine kills and nine digs. Jensen had 11 digs and Panjaitan 25 assists and nine digs.
“We’ve still got some things we need to figure out,” Tobler said. “We need to keep improving and good things will happen.”
After playing at Mater Academy East in Las Vegas on Monday, Virgin Valley will return home to host rival Moapa Valley on Wednesday at 6 pm. The Pirates are also 4-1 in league play heading into this week.
“Those are two big matches for us,” Tobler said. “We need to stay focused and play like we can.”
