ROUNDUP: Lake Mead, Pahranagat Valley to meet for fifth time with state title on the line

RENO — Lake Mead and Pahranagat Valley have met four times already this season.

The fifth meeting will mean the most.

The Eagles and Panthers each won state semifinal matches Friday at Damonte Ranch High School to set up a Saturday showdown, appropriately at high noon, for the Class 1A state title.

“We’ve been here a lot and we’ve always played well,” Pahranagat Valley coach Ginger Whipple said. “But (Lake Mead) has also been here and they know us and we know them, so it’s just going to be a matter of who plays better.”

Lake Mead’s girls put on a clinic, routing McDermitt, 25-12, 25-16, 25-12.

“They weren’t nervous at all,” said Lake Mead coach Diana Lewis. “They were just excited about playing, and they just wanted to go out there and get it done.”

Jessica Rinaldi dished out 18 assists as the Eagles’ offense clicked to near-perfection. Ashley Newton had 16 kills for Lake Mead. Amanda Wellman added five kills, seven aces and seven digs.

“I don’t think they were expecting the hits from Amanda and Ashley,” Lewis said. “Our offense was very good, and our defense was right there.”

Jocelyn Cox added four aces and three kills as McDermitt had trouble handling Lake Mead’s serves.

Jordan Clarke had five digs for Lake Mead, which has never won a state volleyball title. Lake Mead beat Pahranagat Valley twice in an early-season tournament and again last week in the championship match of the Southern Region tournament. Pahranagat Valley won when the teams met in league play.

“This was huge for us,” Lewis said. “It’s definitely a spot we want to be in.”

Pahranagat Valley advanced to the title match by defeating Owyhee, 25-19, 25-10, 25-23 in a rematch of last year's state championship match, won by the Panthers.

The Panthers have won 11 of the past 13 1A state championships. Even so, Whipple already had one eye on the future.

“In that third (set) I wanted to get some girls some experience playing (at state),” Whipple said. “We had a lot of miscues, but that’s volleyball.”

Lincoln County 3, North Tahoe 0 — In middle blocker Marissa Smerek, Lincoln County has the kind of force at the net who can make a difference when the stakes are high.

However, it was the Lynx’ back row that carried them past North Tahoe, 25-23, 25-21, 25-23 and into the 2A state championship match against five-time defending state champion Whittell.

Lincoln County coach Ken Thornock said the Lynx won because they were able to stop North Tahoe hitter Kayla Baumgardner.

“We really planned to take the game away from her,” Thornock said. “At the end we dug Baumgardner four times, and that was the key to the match.”

Whittell 3, The Meadows 2 — Whittell rallied from a 2-1 deficit to win 22-25, 25-23, 19-25, 25-17, 16-14 and keep alive its hopes for a sixth consecutive state title.

Whittell coach Tony Fathergill said his team struggled with nerves and the pressure of living up to expectations early in the match.

“We were nervous at the beginning and had a ton of hitting errors and a ton of passing errors and we just weren’t attacking the ball aggressively,” Fathergill said. “Once we started finishing the ball it changed things around.”

The Meadows led 14-13 in the fifth set.

“It’s a heartbreaker,” Meadows coach Stephanie Heller said. “A few mistakes here and there, and it could gone either way.”

Truckee 3, Moapa Valley 0 — Moapa Valley’s hopes of a 15th state volleyball title came to an end when Truckee posted a 26-24, 25-19, 25-19 win over the Pirates. Truckee, the No. 2 seed from the North, will face Yerington in Saturday’s state championship match.

Truckee trailed most of the first game before pulling out a 26-24 win.

“If we had won that game, I think it would have been a little bit different,” Moapa Valley coach Matt Messer said.

Instead, Truckee caught the Pirates off guard by feeding the ball to Michelle Hoehn, rather than to Nikki Schneider or Callen Finney, who had been the Wolverines’ primary hitters when the teams met early in the season.“We thought (Schneider) and (Finney) were their hitters, but (Hoehn) surprised us a little, how good she was,” Messer said. “We wanted to make somebody else besides (Schneider and Finney) beat us, and (Hoehn) beat us.”

Cydney Solomon had 22 assists for the Pirates.

Briane Olige had eight kills and two blocks for Moapa Valley (21-7). Shelby Thompson added seven kills, six digs and two aces. Megan Stringham had 14 digs, and Britney Hughes added seven digs and six kills.

Moapa Valley, which first captured the state volleyball title in 1975, won 13 consecutive state titles from 1991-2003, the last eight of which came in Class 3A. Truckee has never won the state volleyball crown.

“I am proud of these girls,” said Messer. “They had a great year. It’s tough to lose a state game, but hopefully we learned a life lesson.”