SUNRISE REGION: Silverado charming in dispatching Southeast champ Coronado
Silverado’s girls volleyball team was 0-2 against rival Coronado in two regular-season matches.
But the third meeting was a different story as Kayla Agae logged 17 kills, including eight in the first game, to power Silverado to a 26-24, 25-18, 25-21 sweep of the Cougars in the Class 4A Sunrise Region semifinals Thursday at Las Vegas High.
“During the season, facing them and losing, it made us so fired up as a whole team,” Agae said. “Before the match, we sat together in a circle, even prayed, and stuck together as a whole team — like peanut butter and jelly.”
The Skyhawks (20-13) took a 1-0 lead on Agae’s offensive dominance, and their defense held Cougars standout hitter Kuulei Piena scoreless.
Silverado used an 8-2 run late in the game to take a 23-16 lead before Coronado senior Sara Jones led a comeback bid that fell just short. A kill by Agae and a Coronado hitting error gave the Skyhawks the win.
Senior setter Marilyn Agae fueled a steady Silverado attack with 24 assists and five kills, consistently finding younger sister Kayla on the left side for a blistering spike.
Piena, who finished with 12 kills for Coronado (28-6), delivered five kills to spark the Cougars to a 16-14 lead midway through the second game but couldn’t hold off Kayla Agae. Agae dropped a kill and two aces before Natalie Lainhart hit the game-winning kill on a textbook set by Marilyn Agae.
Silverado coach Jenn Boeddeker said the defending state champion Skyhawks lived up to “the program’s legacy” with the win after finishing third in the Southeast League.
“The program certainly has always done its best to be one of the more competitive teams in Southern Nevada,” Boeddeker said. “And I think that we spent a good bit of the season not living up to our legacy, and I think that it really has turned for them. They’re working on being motivated.”
Lainhart and Lauren Tegtmeier each had five kills for Silverado.
Katie Gamsky supplied 29 assists and two aces for Coronado, which got eight kills from Kristen Herlosky and seven kills from Sara Jones.
The Skyhawks face Green Valley at 5 p.m. Friday at Las Vegas High in the championship match.
Green Valley 3, Las Vegas 1 — Freshman Nikki Drost turned the Gators’ semifinal match against Las Vegas into her own personal hitting and serving clinic, rallying Green Valley to a 23-25, 25-13, 25-13, 25-12 win over the host Wildcats.
Drost paced the Gators (26-9) with 24 kills and six aces, and Jenna Swaffer had 24 assists for Green Valley.
Emma Johnson added 11 kills and three aces for the Gators, who got three blocks from Sommer King.
Natresha Bernard had 10 kills and five blocks for Las Vegas (19-7), and Tiffany Jackson added 19 assists and two kills.
