RENO - Scott Akimoto couldn't help but admire the performance Churchill County High School's volleyball team gave during its march to the NIAA/U.S. Bank 4A State Volleyball championship on Saturday night.
There was just one problem. He was sitting on the Douglas bench trying to figure out how to contain the Greenwave.
"We tried to play up to their level, they're just very good," Akimoto said. "I mean, they're pretty fun to watch. I was sitting at the end of our bench and it was like, 'Wow, what can you do with these kids.'"
Not much, as it turned out. Jennifer Hucke, a 6-foot-1 middle blocker whose next stop is Stanford, and Oregon State-bound Monica Meihack dominated the floor as the Greenwave from Fallon rolled past the Akimoto coached Tigers in three straight games to repeat as state champions, 15-6, 15-13, 15-4, before an estimated crowd of 2,000 that packed into the Galena High School gym.
Those fans saw Churchill County become the first Northern Nevada team to ever win back-to-back state large schools volleyball titles. The last repeat state champion was Green Valley in 1995-96.
"This was a perfect way to end it, I guess," Greenwave coach Caryn Marshall said. "We were up and down the first half of the season, then we kind of got refocused, and since that point in our season, we've been very consistent."
The Greenwave came out to win every time out.
"They're a tough group of kids mentally, and they're very competitive. They have one goal in mind and they get after it," Marshall said. "This is a very solid team. Everybody plays and everybody contributes. Some of the other kids get overlooked some times, but they're a phenomenal group."
Churchill County finished its season 22-0 against Nevada opposition and the only game the Greenwave dropped along the way to Douglas in the Northern 4A Regional finals one week before.
The Tigers were on the verge of taking Saturday's second game, but they weren't quite able to pull it off.
"We had a chance at winning that second game, we just had a couple of goofy nets and a couple of errors that took us right away from our game," Akimoto said. "Against a team like that we can't miss serves and we can't hit net all the time."
Emily Haas put down one kill and combined with Jencie LeJeune on a block to trigger a run in which Douglas scored four straight points to take an 11-8 lead. Moments later, LeJeune took a Jamie McCreary set and put it away to put the Tigers on top 12-9.
Then the Tigers slipped, and the Greenwave jumped at the opportunity.
Tristan Adams set Hucke for a cross-court smash that gave the Greenwave their sideout. Hucke's tip made it 12-10 and two unforced Douglas errors tied the score at 12. Another error broke the tie and then Hucke's block put the Greenwave ahead 14-12. The Greenwave closed the game out when the Tigers hit the ball into the net.
The third game was never in doubt after Churchill County jumped out to a 10-0 lead. Douglas cut the gap to 13-3 on a Haas kill, set up by McCreary's diving save, and then 13-4 when Haas put down McCreary's quick set over the middle.
But Churchill County sophomore Carly Sorensen beat a double block for sideout. Douglas hit the ball long to make it 14-4. And finally, it was a quick Adams set to the middle that Hucke crushed cross-court for the final kill.
"Fallon's an awesome team," said McCreary, the Tigers' senior setter. "They have two D1 players who are awesome and if you can't shut either one of them down, you can't really shut their team down."
Statistically, Hucke had 15 kills, seven in the second game. Meihack, the Northern 4A Region Player of the Year, had 12 kills.
For Douglas, Chelsey Myers was credited with eight kills while Haas contributed eight kills and four blocks. LeJeune added five kills, Megan Brinkmeyer four kills and Andrea Honer four kills to go with nine digs. McCreary handed out 29 assists for the Tigers.
They may have lost at the end, but the Tigers still finished with a 24-8 overall record, first-place finish in the Sierra League and runner-up finishes at the regional and state tournaments.
"It was an awesome year, one of the most fun years I've had in volleyball," McCreary said. "Looking at it from the beginning of the year, I was surprised, but once we got into it and got into zone, I knew we could make it this far. We were really young group of girls, but we got a lot better from the beginning of the season. We came out, we pulled together and did what had to be done."