Senators fall in five to Damonte

The roller coaster ride continues for the Carson High volleyball team and to be honest it's leaving the Senators somewhat sick to their stomach.

Carson lost its chance to effectively take third place away from Damonte Ranch in the Sierra League standings after a 25-23, 20-25, 25-21, 18-25, 11-15 loss to the Mustangs on Tuesday at Morse Burley Gym. Carson (6-5 in the Sierra League) has been effectively relegated to fourth in the league standings.

The Senators will likely face McQueen in the first round of the Northern 4A playoffs, a team Carson took to five games before losing earlier in the year. Depending on how one looks at it that could be considered an encouraging sign - or another frustrating bad omen. Carson was also coming off a five-game loss to Galena.

This match may have been the most frustrating loss of all as after a look at the statistics, one could think this is a match that Carson could have won. Nikki Keller had an outstanding match with 13 kills and it figured that her 19 blocks against the one-two combination of Scharae Steel and Chaiymin Steel would have been enough for the win.

Carson also looked like it was on the verge of winning when it led 8-4 in the fifth game, only to see Damonte go on an 11-3 run to close out the match. In the end, the one-two punch of the Steels was too much to overcome.

"We saw it in full action," said Carson coach Shana Wilkins about how the team stayed on its roller coaster ride against Damonte. "We played as good as we can play. If we can't get the wins, we can't get the wins."

Wilkins said she believes her team's skill are becoming better, but it's also still making costly mistake it shouldn't still be making at this time of year.

"We play for one game, take a little nap, then play for another game and take a little nap," Wilkins said. "Our skills are getting better but we're doing the same things (we've been doing) since game one."

Down 12-9, Carson went on a 7-1 run to take a 16-13 lead. Nicole Carlevato's kill began the run. Morgan Nuckolls' kill gave Carson a 19-16 lead and Breanna Anderson's back-to-back kills made it 21-17. Carson. Anderson had another kill after Damonte closed to within 21-19 and Keller's quick hit off of Shannon Earwood's set help the Senators close out the game.

Carson fell behind 4-0 in game four, but fought back to tie the score 8-8 on two straight quick hits by Kailey Taylor off of Earwood's sets. But Damonte gradually pulled away to take a 20-13 lead and never lost control.

The Senators looked like it was on the verge of the win on two straight Danae Eckart kills that gave them a 6-4 lead. Then came two straight digs, one by Anderson and one by Carlevato off the tape that landed on Damonte's side for points that gave Carson an 8-4 lead.

But Damonte went on to take a 13-10 lead. Keller's quick hit off of Earwood's set pulled Carson to within 13-11 before Damonte closed out the match.

Anderson had six kills, an ace, three blocks and eight digs, Mavil Diaz had 13 digs, an ace and a kill, Taylor had eight kills and five blocks, Keller added an ace and two digs and Earwood had 43 assists.

DOUGLAS 3, NORTH VALLEYS 0

The Tigers (28-4, 10-1) swept the Panthers 25-14, 25-14, 25-10.

Taryn Williams had 16 kills, three aces, seven points, five digs and two blocks, Jourdan Burke had 12 kills, Bridget Maestretti had 10 kills, four digs, one ace, 10 points and four blocks, Alyssa Todd had five kills, one dig and an assist, and five blocks Melissa Brown had four kills, three digs, one ace and eight blocks, Megan Mitchell had two kills, four aces, , 18 points, two digs and 25 assists and two blocks, Jordan Marsh had five digs and two points, Christine DuPuis had two digs, Mysta Townsell had two digs and Mary Lombino added an assist, three aces, five points and seven digs.

Douglas won the junior varsity match 25-8, 25-16 and the freshmen match 25-12, 25-14.

CHS JVS 2, DAMONTE 0

Meagan Nuckolls served for the first nine points of the match, including three aces, as Carson (14-2) won 25-15, 25-20. Nuckols had 18 points, one block and 12 assists.

Also for Carson, Brittney Wyatt had three aces and four digs, Alexis Church had four digs and one kill, Skylar Peterson had one kill, Shelby Price had one block and two kills, Brittney Sly had one block and four kills, Karli Dodge had two aces, three digs and six kills, Sarah Kerkla had one kill, Natalia Pecorilla had three kills and a dig and Kendra Krupp added two blocks and two kills.

CHS FROSH 2, DAMONTE 0

Carson (14-1) won the freshmen match 25-8, 25-12. Jazmine Stokes had one kill and five digs, Elizabeth Bennett-Doran had three assists, one kill and two digs, Breann Perry had eight assists, two digs and 11 points, Makayla Drahos had four aces, one kill and seven digs, Bailey Young had two aces, four assists, four kills and four digs, Chloe Hearn had two aces and two digs, Jeanette VanSickle had four kills and three blocks, Kristi Shaffer had six aces, 13 points and two digs and Elysse Virden had three kills.