Wins have been few and far between for Carson High's volleyball team this season.
The Senators snapped a six-match losing streak with a 25-16, 25-13 25-19 win over last-place South Tahoe in a Sierra League game at Morse Burley Gymnasium.
Carson improved to 2-6 in league, but still face an uphill battle to earn a playoff spot with just three weeks left in the regular season.
"The energy was good night aside from serving," Carson coach Justin Malley said. "We didn't serve as well as I'd like. We tried some new people in different positions. Anytime you hold a team under 20 all three games, you pretty much laid the wood to them. We made 16 service errors which tells you how well we played the rest of the game."
South Tahoe scored just 48 points in the match and one-third of the Vikings' points came off Carson service mistakes.
South Tahoe stayed close in the opening game, pulling to within 10-8 after a service mistake by Jeanette Van Sickle, who finished the match with nine kills, three blocks and three service aces.
Carson rebounded to score seven of the next eight for a 17-8 lead. Elysse Virden and Tiana McAllister-Daggs each had a kill in that spurt and Kendra Krupp served up an ace. An ace by Van Sickle made it 23-14. South Tahoe closed to 23-16, but a kill by McAllister-Daggs and a block by the 6-foot-5 Virden ended the opening game.
The second game followed the same pattern.
After McAllister-Daggs served long enabling South Tahoe to close to 12-11, Carson scored 11 of the next 13 points to increase its lead to 21-13. Van Sickle served up two aces and contributed a kill and Virden had a stuff block. Alyson Christl added a kill and Makayla Drahos (4 aces, 10 digs) served up an ace when the South Tahoe backrow players thought the serve was going long and made no effort on the ball.
Kills by Angela Augusta, McAllister-Daggs and Christl enabled the Senators to close out the game.
In the third game, Virden came to the forefront with a dominating performance.
With South Tahoe enjoying a 10-9 lead, Virden put together three straight kills, two of them on dinks, to give the Senators a 12-10 lead. The Vikings' Rachel Kaufer knocked down a kill to make it 12-11, but another Virden kill and a lift on South Tahoe made it 14-11.
The Vikings closed the gap to 17-16 thanks to two Carson service errors and a spike by the Vikes' Ellen Dupree.
Carson regained control by scoring five straight points for a 22-16 lead. Van Sickle had two kills in that span and Drahos added two aces. Virden, who finished with eight kills and two blocks, finished off the game and match with a nice kill off a South Tahoe block attempt.
"Starting last year when we pulled her up to varsity, I told her that she can be that impact player," Malley said. "But before she can do that, she has to be comfortable in that role. I'm starting to see some changes with her at practice."
Malley was pleased with the play of Courney Hack, who finished with 12 assists. Krupp ended the match with nine.
The JV squad won 25-9 and 25-16 while the freshmen rolled to a 25-5 and 25-20 win.