Zoey Swisher sets the ball for the Lady Wave.
The Greenwave varsity volleyball team said goodbye to its senior girls with a special ceremony on Wednesday.
Several of the Lady Wave’s junior varsity and varsity players were honored along with their families on the court including Miranda Ford, who had returned from the hospital after recovering from an automobile accident involving three other Churchill County students.
Senior night also marked the last conference match for the Wave, a nail-biter loss to the Dayton Dust Devils, 3-2. Fallon won the first set 29-27, lost the second set 25-18, lost the third set 25-15, came back for a fourth-set win 25-18, and lost the final set 15-12 that let Dayton to take the match.
The first set established the tone for the matc when the Dust Devils’ Ashley Mason scored the first kill and the Lady Wave’s Megan McCormick tipped it over to tie the score, 1-1.
The Wave and the Dust Devils would spend most of the match climbing over tie scores.
Fallon’s Taylor Amezquita had a strong serving game in her last match, which along with many early errors by Dayton, gave Fallon a strong lead 7-3. The Wave’s Whitney Skabelund kept Fallon ahead of a tie set with strong kills that the Dust Devil’s couldn’t block inbounds, surging the Wave forward 9-6.
Fallon’s Haylee Paladini had several kills and attempted kills, and a series of impressive blocks including one parallel to the net that the Dust Devil’s couldn’t save. This bolstered the Wave at 11-8.
Dayton captain Shalia Powell, however, had several consecutive kills that would either go just over Paladini’s or Skabelund’s fingertips or would land in the gap where Skabelund could barely dive and miss.
Powell was also strong in setting up at the net and misdirecting the Wave’s blockers, giving them only so much room to move, and the Dust Devil’s climbed to an 18-14 lead.
Dayton began to suffer errors then after Paladini brought it 19-15 with a misdirecting tip of her own.
Three out-of-bounds attacks tied the score at 20-20 after a tip by the Wave’s LeAnn Stands.
In less than a minute the score was tied at 25-25, which led the set into extra points. Fallon took the lead after Paladini and Skabelund blocked together, raising the Wave 26-25, but more out-of-bounds serves by both teams led the Wave to win the first set, 29-27.
Dayton took the early lead in the second set, though, climbing as far ahead as 9-3 due to Wave service errors and some risky Dayton serves that barely landed inbounds.
The Devils spent the majority of the set doubling the Wave’s score due to Fallon struggling to keep the kills inbounds.
Dayton co-captain Rachel Hadley was able to read Stands well in terms of where Stands preferred to kill and was able to deflect high into the air giving her teammates the advantage with further misdirection.
The Wave still battled them, behind 23-18, but just as Dayton’s errors gave the Wave throwaway points, one more out of bounds hit by Paladini gave Dayton the set point and a 25-18 win.
The Wave wouldn’t fair much better in the third set, despite the Wave’s Kayla Buckmaster taking the court and landing two consecutive kills alongside Skabelund that gave Fallon a 5-1 lead.
Errors and a strong blocking game by Hadley against Skabelund let Dayton tie the score three times even though Paladini and Skabelund were able to break three ties with tips to the Dust Devils’ right gap.
Serve errors would again allow Dayton to surge forward, however, and an impressive tip by Powell that Skabelund dived for and missed won Dayton the set point at 25-15.
The Wave rallied as best as they could in the fourth set.
Paladini blocked for the first point, followed by an aggressive kill by Skabelund, but Powell was able to send the Wave diving in vain again and tied it 2-2.
Dayton raced ahead to a 9-5 error until Amezquita was able to deflect inbounds and McCormick was able to successfully dive and save the ball from Powell’s kills.
A net error let the Wave take back their lead at 11-10, at which point they were able to keep it through saving Powell’s kills before they hit the ground and excessive tipping at the net.
Dayton was still able to climb past Fallon’s 22-15 lead with three more points from two wave errors and a kill, but Buckmaster landed a kill of her own to get the Wave to the set point.
The Wave won the fourth set 25-18.
The fifth set was to fewer points, and all the more anxious because of it.
This set had the most consecutive ties, as many as 12 instances in which both Dayton and Fallon let the lead slip by touching balls that would otherwise be spiked out of bounds.
The tie ended at 12-12 however, when the Dust Devils’ Kallie Strong and Makenna Olsen were able to finish strong and block just over Paladini and Skabelunds’ heads.
In no time, the Dust Devils won the set 15-12 and the match.