Kaitlin Leck and the Carson Senators set the tone early when they rolled through game one against Elko in their opening round Northern 4A Region volleyball tournament match on Wednesday night.
The Senators coasted the rest of the way on their way to beating Elko 15-6, 15-9, 15-13, before a hometown crowd at Morse Burley Gymnasium. Leck, a fourth-year starter for Carson, celebrated her final home match by pounding down 17 kills to help the Senators improve their season record to 14-3.
In the process, Carson advanced into the tournament's final four and a semifinal match against defending Northern and state 4A champion Fallon at noon on Saturday at South Tahoe High School. Galena and Douglas will play in the other semifinal at 10 a.m. Three of those teams will move on to play in the 4A state tournament next weekend at Galena High School.
"We have to win one match Saturday to go to state," Carson coach Daryl James said. "We have to knock one of those teams off and we have our work cut out for us. If we can play well, I like our chances of being in the top three."
James liked what he saw in the opening game against Elko, the No. 3 seed from the High Desert League.
"We had more swings in the first game tonight than we had in the whole match at Douglas," James said, referring to Carson's three-set loss at Douglas last Thursday in a match that decided the Sierra League championship.
Carson quickly went up 4-0 in the second game, but just as quickly, the Indians rallied back to 4-3 when Katie Cavender served back-to-back aces. At that point, James called for a time-out.
"I just told them, 'Let's get the intensity back up and let's start working and focusing on what we're trying to do," the Carson coach said. "We were taking them lightly. We went right through them the first game and then we quit playing. But we came back. The kids wanted to win and they came through and did what they had to do."
Chrissy Joseph served up five points to break a 6-all tie and give the Senators an 11-6 lead. The Senators extended their lead to 14-9 on Megan Anderson's block, a play made possible moments earlier by Rachael DeRiemer's diving dig.
Game three came right down to the wire. The score was tied at 9-9, Carson tied it at 11-all on a DeRiemer block and Elko pulled even at 13-all on a Seanne Culver kill. Then Talia Joyce stepped to the service line and rang up the final two points. Jennifer Saunders put down Ryanne Amodei's quick set to the middle to break the tie and then Leck beat a double block on the left side to close out the match.
"Talia came in and got those last two points," James said. "That was clutch to get those in because she hadn't played a whole heck of a lot."
DeRiemer finished the match with 12 kills and three blocks, Anderson had eight kills and four blocks and Saunders had six kills for the Senators. Amodei was credited with 39 assists.
For Elko, Stacy Griswold and Culver had nine kills each. Aubry Anderson handed out 18 assists and freshman Cammie Basanez had 10.
"We knew coming in it would be tough," said Elko coach Bonnie Basanez, whose club ended its season with a 12-7 overall record. "Obviously, we'd like to be going on, but we got a lot further than we ever expected. Before the season, I predicted 50-50, so I'm very happy with this year."
DOUGLAS DEFEATS MCQUEEN
Chelsy Myers paced a balanced attack as the Sierra League champion Tigers disposed of McQueen 15-4, 15-4, 15-7 in Minden.
Myers gave an all-around performance that included 12 kills to go with nine digs as Douglas advanced into the 10 a.m. semifinal match against Galena in South Lake Tahoe.
The Tigers, who finished their conference season with a 14-2 record, are trying to reach the tournament's championship round for the 10th straight year.
Douglas took control early with a couple of long serving runs from Myers and Jamie McCreary. Myers had a four-point run that was aided by a kill and block from Megan Brinkmeyer, and McCreary had a five-point run.
In the second game, Jennifer McCroskey came off the bench to contribute a five-point service run, including two aces.
Emily Haas finished with nine kills, three blocks and six digs for the Tigers. Brinkmeyer had five kills and three blocks while Jencie LeJeune added four kills and four digs and Andrea Honer 13 digs. Senior setter McCreary had 26 assists.
In another opening round match Fallon defeated Douglas 15-4, 15-1, 15-3.