Local

Lady Cougars volleyball stands10-6 going into final two matches

By JIM MANIACI, Laughlin Nevada Times

Monday, October 26, 2009 1:50 PM PDT

Pi Viriyakul digs deep for one during an early-season game in the Lady Cougars' den. ROBIN RICHARDS/News West

LAUGHLIN - The LHS volleyball team used its Oct. 13 matches, rescheduled from Oct. 16, as a practice for its Oct. 20 visit to Indian Springs High School and the season finale at Lund on Friday, Oct. 23.

On Oct. 13, LHS defeated Sandy Valley High School in a doubleheader, 3-0, 3-0. The Silver and Blue downed the Red and Black, 25-14, 25-11 and 25-21 in the first match and bested the Lady Sidewinders, 20-20, 25-12 and 25-15 in the second set.

“We played all our girls and tried some new rotations, with Rochelle (Martinez) and Terran (Drescher) as setters and Alex (Young) as a substitute setter,” Coach Eliza Candelaria said.

In between came JV and varsity matches with Henderson International on Oct. 15 in the Cougars Den. The Lady Wolverines won the JV match, 2-1, capturing the tie-breaker, 16-14, when the referees caught LHS out of the proper rotation and awarded the final penalty point.

The visitors (now 9-8) also won the varsity match, 3-0, as the home town girls (now 10-6 including tournaments) steadily improved, but not quite mastering the Lady Wolverines. HI won 25-14, 25-18, and 25-23.

Even in the first game the Lady Cougars started showing some life after being down 23-9 and rallying for 5 points.

In the second game the Silver and Blue began handling the line-drive serves and attempted spikes, closing to 21-18 before fading.

The third game feature some brilliant saves by both sextets as neither squad led by more than four points and the scored was knotted nine times.

“We had amazing hitting by Elisa (Daniels) and Brooke (Lee) with Pi (Viriyakul) digging the ball well and our setting was great by Terran. The girls definitely improved each game,” Candelaria said.

For next year, the coach will lose only Viriyakul and Martinez to graduation, with half the team being freshman.