BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal Carson's Danae Eckart hits a ball past Whittell defenders during their game at Carson High School on Thursday.
It's been a long two nights for the young Carson High volleyball team, with the final verdict that it will still take some time for the Senators to come together.
After losing in three straight games on Wednesday at Yerington, the Senators fell to Whittell in three games, 25-5, 25-18, 25-17 on Thursday at Morse Burley Gym.
Carson can take solace in the fact that Yerington has gotten off to an impressive start with two wins over Manogue and a win over Dayton. And Whittell is one of the state's top programs on any level.
But Senator coach Shana Wilkins talked like her team still has a long ways to go. "It's going to take some time to learn how to play with each other, just chemistry on the court," she said.
"Every one of my kids are working their tails off but they're trying to do it themselves."
Carson showed it could play with Whittell at times in games two and three, but Wilkins said her team will have to develop better chemistry to be able to compete with teams like the Warriors.
"We can play with them," Wilkins said. "But every one of my kids tries to do it themselves."
Whittell coach Dan McLaughlin, who also coaches many of the Carson players in the Capital City Volleyball Club, has a strong nucleus returning in a program that's one of the state powers on any level. "That's a good place to start," said McLaughlin about the nucleus he has.
McLaughlin also said Carson will come along. "They're a very good team and we had to play well to beat them," he said.
"Carson played very inspired. Forget the first game. Every team goes through a game they can't do anything."
After Whittell jumped out to a 3-0 lead in game three, Morgan Nuckolls had a kill and a dink to pull Carson to within 3-2 and Blaike King's save that sailed over the net onto Whittell's side of the court for a point pulled the Senators to within 4-3.
Danae Eckart's dink and Breanna Anderson's two straight aces gave Carson a 7-5 lead. Nikki Keller had a kill and a block to put Carson up 10-0, but Whittell took control with a 10-1 run to take an 11-11 lead.
Carson made one last rally on a Sandie Howard quick hit off of Lindsay Ford's set and Ford's two aces brought the Senators to within 19-17. But Whittell closed the match with a 6-0 run.
"They exposed our weaknesses," McLaughlin said. "Their soft stuff they were doing was very effective and they're very good at it.
Lindsay was allowed to set the ball a lot more. They didn't give us games two and three. We had to earn them."
McLaughlin obviously has a reason for pulling for Carson "because I've coached the vast majority of them. I think the world of them. I'm fond of them."
For Whittell, Jessica Woods had 13 kills, five points, two aces, six digs and 15 service points, Kelly Karmann had five kills, 15 points, five aces, four blocks, six digs and 10 points, Kendra Kuskin had four kills and six digs, Jordan Reeder had 21 assists and four digs, Laruen Andrew Had 11 service points and three aces and Brette Arrington and Ashley Amarel each added three digs.
For Carson, Eckart had three kills and four digs, King had two kills and three digs, Howard had five blocks and Ford had two blocks and nine assists.
CHS FROSH 2, WHITTELL 0
Carson (3-0) won the freshmen match 25-19, 25-15. Andrea Clustka had three kills and three aces, Jamie Showalter had four kills, bree Young had a kill and an ace, Skylar Petersen had one kill and two aces, Sara Anderson had three aces and eight assists, Kendra Krupp had three kills, Amanda Rupert had one kill and one ace and Caitlin Berkich had three digs and five aces.