RENO — Volleyball is known as a game of momentum.
On Saturday, the Carson Senators couldn’t find it. Bishop Manogue did, and in the process, the Miners rolled to a long-awaited Northern Division I Region Tournament championship victory against Carson.
Manogue (34-6 overall) swept three straight sets — winning 25-16, 25-20, 25-23 — before a crowd of 900-plus gathered in Manogue’s M. Sean Sullivan Gymnasium.
As soon as 6-foot-1 outside hitter Katelyn Oppio hammered down a match-ending cross-court kill, Manogue’s fans poured on to the court and coach Jason Sterrett smiled as he walked down to the end of the bench and pumped his fist.
“It’s been a long season and I’m happy for the girls,” Sterrett said. “They worked hard … this is about them, and they deserve it.”
This was a different outcome than last year when the Miners saw their season end with a five-set loss against Douglas in the region semifinals. Douglas went on to defeat Carson in the finals.
“The hard part about volleyball and the playoffs is that you know if you have an off night, you can get caught,” Sterrett said. “So, yeah, it creates a little different tension and we know everything’s at stake and I think our girls were able to rise to the occasion.”
Manogue’s last loss came on Oct. 27 in four games at Carson.
“I think we had opportunities tonight, a lot of unforced errors on our part … missed serves, hits in the net and we shanked too many passes,” Carson coach Robert Maw said. “We just didn’t play as clean as we did the last time we saw them. Unforced errors was the tell of the tale. I mean, we would score a couple of points and then we’d have an unforced error …. we could never put together a run.
“That and our communication kind of hurt us tonight. The girls didn’t talk as much as I would have liked them to and that kind of lays the tendency of uncertainty and uncertainty leads to big errors.”
There were some anxious moments in all three sets
Game one was tied five times before Manogue took charge with a 7-1 run. A block by Oppio gave the Miners a 12-11 lead. Then Alli Reviglio knocked down a cross-court shot, aided by a diving dig by libero Hannah Kip, as the Miners extended their lead to 14-11. Oppio closed it out by ringing up the final four service points, capped by a set-clinching ace.
The second game saw seven ties — Carson surged to an early 10-4 lead — and later setter Natalie Anderson fed Maddie Jergesen for a cross-court shot that put the Senators on top, 18-17. The Miners scored six unanswered points to take a 23-19 lead before Reviglio put down a kill that landed just inside the back line to close out the set.
Carson battled into the third set as well. Natalie Anderson rang up an ace to give the Senators an 11-8 lead. After Manogue regained the lead, Jaycie Roberts blasted down a kill and then showed her touch with a tip to open space that kept the Senators within 17-15 and 18-16. Juliana Anderson delivered a kill that brought the Senators to within 21-20, then they tied the score 21- and 22-all. However, Reviglio drilled a shot just inside the back line to put Manogue back on top 23-22 before Oppio closed out the set and match.
The Senators end their season with a 22-11 overall record that includes a second-place finish in the Sierra League and an appearance in the region tournament finals for the second year in a row.
“It was a great season,” Maw said, adding mention of the supportive fans who turned out for the match. “We have great support; we love the parents, we had some people, we had some kids from the past and parents supporting us and I thank them for coming. They enjoy watching Carson volleyball, too bad we couldn’t deliver the W.”