Pirate Volleyball manages a winning week

By LAURA ROBISON

The Progress

The Moapa Valley High School boys volleyball team won its matchup against a visiting Cristo Rey St. Viator team on Monday evening, April 15. But it wasn’t pretty.

Although the Pirates defeated the Royals at home in three sets: 26-16, 25-18 and 25-17, the boys were sluggish and seemed to struggle through the match.

The team had missed the prior week of practice due to the Clark County Fair, with some of the teammates working during that time. And two players are still out on the injured list: Kael Freeman and David Walker.

“We made a lot of mistakes,” said MVHS coach Tiffany Frederick. “But we still came out on top, winning in 3 sets.”

MVHS sophomore Tag Jensen led the team with 8 kills. Jimmy Ward and Mateo Bradshaw served up 13 points each, to win the night.

On Thursday, April 18, the Pirates travelled to Las Vegas to face Mater Academy East, Las Vegas.

The Pirates were victorious over the Knights, but it wasn’t a breeze. The match went to five sets to get the win.
“It took the boys a whole set just to get off the bus,” said Frederick.

Mater was on point and it was hard to put the ball away. But the Knights couldn’t dig Brigham Whitmore’s hits. He had rolled his ankle on Monday, but that didn’t stop him. He led in kills, getting 12 out of 19 attempts.

With a 3-2 win, the set scores were close: 16-25, 26-19, 24-26, 25-22 and 15-11.
MVHS ended the week with a 9-3 record for league play.

The last three games of the regular season are all home games, and they will pose a challenge to the Pirates.
On Tuesday, April 23 the team will host Somerset Academy Losee.

Then on Thursday the Pirates will host the reigning Nevada State Champs Boulder City.

To finish out the regular season MVHS will be hosting a rival match against Virgin Valley on Monday, April 29, which is Seniors night for the Pirates.

All games are at 6 p.m. in the Gary Batchelor gymnasium.