Reno dominated play Tuesday night and had no problem dispatching Spanish Springs en route to a 25-16, 25-10, 25-13 romp in the league opener for both teams.
“I haven’t seen McQueen play yet, but I’m going to assume right now that Reno is the best team in our league,” Spanish Springs coach Frank Sandomenico said. “They didn’t play one of their best hitters because she had an injury, so they’re even better than they showed.”
Reno’s all-league candidate Shelby Zaldain, one of the top hitters in northern Nevada, was limited to back-row duty.
Spanish Springs struggled with its passing throughout the conference clash. Those struggles resulted in the Cougars not being able to run much of an offense. Spanish Springs had just 13 kills in the loss.
Game 1 was the most competitive of the three. The two teams traded points to a 13-13 tie, but it was all Reno from there. The host Huskies outscored the Cougars 12-3 the rest of the way and were never really threatened again.
“We just needed to get focused. That’s been a problem for us. It’s taking us a while to get going,” Reno coach Adrian Hankoff said.
Game 2 was never close. Reno rolled out to a 17-4 lead, capped by a Janelle Borsum kill. The final eight points of that run were unanswered. The two teams split the next 10 points, but the SSHS spikers never got closer than 22-10 the rest of the way.
Game 3 was similar to the second contest early. Reno again built a large lead, 12-3. The Huskies extended their edge to 19-7 only to see Spanish Springs re-awaken briefly. The Cougars mounted a 6-2 spurt, closing the gap to 21-13.
That’s as good as it got for Spanish Springs. Reno’s Jaclyn Winkel served up a pair of aces as the Huskies reeled off four straight point to finish off the Cougars.
“Toward the end we lost our focus. I had to tell the team that we’ve got to stay focused until the end,” Hankoff said. “Overall, I was pleased. We passed pretty well. Spanish Springs is a pretty good team. They came out and surprised us.”
Senior Danielle Beebe was a bright spot for Spanish Springs. She finished with 7 kills, 6 assists and 2 aces.
Perry Bradley paced the Huskies (9-3, 1-0 HDL) with 7 kills. Winkel chipped in 6 kills and 3 aces. Erica Stoddard gave away 19 assists for the RHS squad.
Spanish Springs now sits 15-9 overall and 0-1 in league. The Cougars are in action again Thursday when they host Hug.
Reed
At McQueen, Reed fought back from a two-game deficit to nearly steal a victory from the defending league champions. Unfortunately for Reed fans, the comeback of their beloved Blue and Gold fell short.
In the end, McQueen captured a 25-22, 25-18, 23-25, 22-25, 15-11 triumph.
“Unfortunately, I’m a little disappointed. I thought we played very well. I thought we did a great job at the net,” Reed coach Kristen Flagtvedt said. “Our downfall at the start of this season has been missing serves and that killed us again tonight.”
Reed middle blocker Jackie Lee pounded 19 kills while Chelsea Cohen and Kendra Davis each added 11.
Shelby Moore lifted 24 digs while Cohen got up 20. Rachael Vaughn dished out 42 assists.
“A few times we let McQueen go on some long runs of points. We fought back but there were times we were just could not dig out of the hole,” Flagtvedt said.
“We started playing with more intensity and more heart tonight. Hopefully, if that continues, some of these games will end up on the positive side for us.”
Reed, which fell to 8-17 overall and 0-1 in league play, returns to the court Friday for a match at Elko.
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