Carson celebrates a third game victory in a match against Douglas on Tuesday night.
Carson. Douglas. Five sets. Thrilling finish.
Did you really expect anything else from the Sierra League rivals?
Led by the hitting of Jaycie Roberts (26 kills) and Keelin Pilgrim (15 kills), the Carson High volleyball team bounced back from a 2-0 deficit to win 10-25, 12-25, 25-18, 29-27 and 17-15 Tuesday night at Morse Burley Gym.
The Senators upped their record to 8-3 heading into Thursday’s match at Galena.
“It’s always been tough against Douglas,” said setter Natalie Anderson, who dished out 41 assists. “Douglas always brings its A game. I had faith we could pull through.”
Certainly coach Robert Maw aged several years.
“We hadn’t seen them play this year, and we had no film on them,” Maw said. “They are playing a lot faster than in years past. We weren’t quite ready for that.
“We’ve been here before with McQueen and Spanish Springs, and this time we were able to finish.”
Douglas had two chances to finish off the Senators in the final set, but each time Pilgrim came through with a big kill.
With the score tied at 4, the Tigers scored seven of the next 10 points to take an 11-7 lead. Freshman Anna Berolone, sophomore Hailey Hughes and senor Isabella Peterson had two kills apiece for the Tigers.
Carson closed to 12-11 on a Pilgrim kill, a stuff block by Dajarrah Navarro (18 blocks) and a service error by Taryn Allmet. Consecutive kills by Bertolone made it 14-11, but a kill by Pilgrim, a service ace by Abbey Paulson and a kills by Ku’ulei Haupu tied the match at 14.
Hughes made it 15-14, but kills by Pilgrim, Roberts and an error by DHS closed out the game and match for the Senators.
The Tigers had things their own way in taking a 2-0 lead.
In the first game, Douglas rolled to a 12-3 lead as Sierra Sullivan had three kills and Peterson two. Carson never got into tempo because of its inability to serve receive. The Senators never got their middles involved in the opening two games. Douglas closed out the first game with an 8-1 run, as Peterson had a kill and stuff block, and Talyn Jackson stuffed a Carson spike at the net to end it.
In the second game, Douglas broke open a tight 11-10 game with a 9-2 run to make it 20-12. The Senators had three errors, while Peterson contributed two kills. The Senators rallied to 24-18 thanks to two kills by Roberts, but Carson was called for a net violation on game point.
The third set was all Carson much to the chagrin of Douglas coach Suzi Townsell.
“We didn’t move on from points when we made mistakes,” she said. Translation. Things started to snowball on the Tigers, and they were helpless to turn it around.
With the score tied at 8, Carson scored 14 of the next 17 points to open up a 22-11 lead. The surge started with three straight DHS errors, and then Roberts and Pilgrim caught fire. Roberts had three kills in the aforementioned surge as did Pilgrim. After a Jackson dink, CHS closed it out with three straight points.
Th fourth game was a classic. Carson built leads of 10-4 and 15-11 behind Pilgrim and Roberts. Peterson brought the Tigers back to 18-16 with a couple of kills, and two kills by Sullivan put DHS in front at 20-19. From there, the game was tied at 20, 23, 24, 25 and 26. Douglas had a chance at 26-25, but botched the serve, tying the set at 26. Jackson put the Tigers ahead 27-26, but then she made a service error, tying it at 27.
A hitting error by Peterson and a Roberts kill sent it to a fifth set.
“The second game we started to go with the slow, outside hitting,” Maw said. “As the game progressed, we stayed with that, but also tried to mix in a quick set here and there. I think we made the right adjustments. Jaycie and Keelin really carried us tonight.”
• The Carson JV squad won 25-15 and 25-21. Kailee Luschar had four kills and three blocks. Hannah Pembrook had 10 digs.