Carson volleyball falls to South Tahoe

Young players give you a lot of energy, but they are prone to making a lot of mistakes, too.

Carson High's volleyball team found that out Thursday in its 25-27, 25-23, 24-26 and 11-25 setback to undefeated South Tahoe.

The loss dropped Carson to 2-1, while the Vikings improved to 4-0, their fastest start in many years.

"We fought 90 percent of the time, but it needs to be 100," Carson coach Shana Wilkins said. "We made a lot of errors, and when you make errors you give up a lot of points. They are all inexperienced, and so we really don't have leaders on the floor.

"They (South Tahoe) are tough. They have got some athletes. They work hard at defense. We contained their middle player (Jessica Bettencourt) that hurt Douglas."

Christina Baghdikian picked up the slack for the Vikings, pounding down 13 kills, six of those coming in the first game.

"She had a really good match," South Tahoe coach Gary Hankoff said. "She has fun when she plays. I wish I could get the rest of the girls to play like that."

This was a match that Carson could have won, but South Tahoe picked up the momentum late in the third game and dominated the final game.

With the match tied at a set apiece, Carson appeared to be in the driverís seat, rolling to a 20-15 lead behind two kills and a block by Nicole Scott, who finished with seven blocks and four kills. South Tahoe scored nine of the next 12 points, led by two Jennifer Filipko kills, to take a 24-23 lead.

Carson tied it at 24 thanks to a bad South Tahoe set. Baghdikian put the Vikings in front 25-24 with a running one-handed spike, and then Carson was called for four hits to end the third set.

"It's the same thing - inexperience," Wilkins said. "We make errors. We make a lot of them."

That late-game collapse by the Senators carried into the fourth set.

Leading 6-4, Carson yielded 12 of the next 14 points. Baghdikian served up two aces to lead the charge. Carson hit a couple of spikes into the net in that span and made two bad passes off hard South Tahoe serves.

"We started to get untracked that third game," Hankoff said. "We were relaxed in that fourth game. I think the girls felt like they had the momentum. Usually in a high school match you will have momentum shifts back and forth. I guess we never gave it up.

"Carson started to play the way we did the first two games. This is a good group. We're a little weak on offense, but our defense is really solid. It's all we practice."

The first set went back and forth until South Tahoe went on an 8-2 run to take a 22-15 lead. Bettencourt blocked Alex McAlman for a point and Dana Jensen had a nice crosscourt kill. Both of Carson's points in that run came off South Tahoe mistakes.

Carson battled back, scoring eight of the next nine points, tying the set at 23. Sandra McAlman had two kills in that span and Alex McAlman added a key kill.

The teams traded points until Kim Krouskoupf rattled home back-to-back kills, snapping a 25-all deadlock and giving the Vikes the first game.

The second game was more of the same as evidenced by the eight ties. Carson gained slight control late in the set, as Lindsay Kern's kill (four total) broke a 15-all tie. Kern came back moments later with another kill to make it 19-16.

Carson maintained that three-point lead until the Vikings rallied to tie the set at 23 thanks to two unforced errors by Carson. Bettencourt missed on a shot to the deep corner and Melanie Norvell served up an ace to even the match.

Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1281.