A much-anticipated matchup between the top two volleyball teams in the Northern 4A lived up to its billing and a little more Tuesday night in Minden.
Douglas High pulled away with a marathon win in five games over the Bishop Manogue Miners, 21-25, 25-17, 23-25, 25-19, 15-13. The match lasted more than two hours and could've gone either way in the end.
It was the Tigers, though, who pulled out of a 10-10 tie in the fifth game to take the match, marking their third win in as many tries in five-game matches.
"Overall, we really didn't play very well," Douglas coach Suzi Townsell said. "It was not what we talk about when we say Douglas volleyball, except maybe in the second game.
"The good things were we outlasted a good team and we know how to finish five games."
The match quickly developed into a battle between Manogue's superb blocking line and Douglas' superior depth.
The Miners were exceptionally solid against Douglas' initial attack, with the Tigers rarely winning any points on their first possession, but Douglas' 14-player roster appeared to get the best of the Miners, who only rotated in about seven or eight players on the night.
Nowhere did this show more than in the fourth game after the Miners had taken a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Miners committed 12 errors as a team in the game, including a stretch of six errors in just seven points. Douglas took advantage by translating a 9-6 lead into 15-7 advantage.
The Tigers ended up with all but two players directly contributing points to the effort (whether by kills, blocks or aces) and all 14 seeing time.
"It was a crazy match," Douglas senior captain Taryn Williams said. "We're a team, all the way through. Anyone that is in there, we trust them with the match."
Williams led the Tigers with 19 kills while Megan Mitchell chipped in 37 assists and Shannon Dugan had a breakout night with 12 blocks.
Junior Jourdan Burke added 13 kills, Mitchell had six and Dugan had four.
Jessica Waggoner had 12 blocks, Bryanna Schinzing had 11 and Mitchell had 10. Mysta Townsell finished with 25 digs.
Manogue took the first game after Douglas had built an 18-13 lead. The Tigers committed five consecutive errors, however, and the Miners capitalized on the momentum with an 8-3 run to close the game out.
Douglas came right back in the second, jumping out to a 5-1 lead and later put together an impressive 7-2 stretch for a 12-7 lead. Manogue got no closer than four the rest of the game.
In the third, the teams were tied eight different times before Manogue broke out with a 20-16 lead.
Douglas scratched back into it, but had a back-breaking series of three sideouts followed directly by service errors to set the Miners up for the win.
After the Tigers took the fourth, they jumped out to leads of 6-3 and 9-6 in the fifth. Manogue took advantage of a Douglas error and used a block and a kill to tie it back up at nine, forcing a Tiger timeout.
Mitchell then set Williams up for a kill, Manogue answered with a kill from Sophia Anxo and the Miners were called for two consecutive double-hits, giving Douglas the 12-10 lead.
Mitchell connected with Waggoner for a kill, and after a Manogue point, she found Burke for a kill and the 14-11 lead.
Grace Anxo hammered home a kill to cut the score to14-12 for Manogue and Douglas sent a ball out of bounds on the next point to cut the score to 14-13.
Mitchell found Burke one more time, however, for the kill and the match.
The two teams will meet again in Reno in several weeks, but for now Douglas has been solidified as the No. 1-ranked team in the region.
"Our plan was just to play Douglas volleyball, play the game that we wanted to play and not let them get us into their game," Williams said. "We know in our heads that the rankings don't mean anything. We have goals for ourselves and that's what we focus on."