Douglas VB defeats Carson

MINDEN — Isabelle Peterson and Anna Bertolone combined to hammer down 40 kills Thursday afternoon when the Douglas High volleyball team posted a 3-1 victory against Carson.

Peterson, a senior middle blocker, delivered 22 kills and Bertolone, a 6-foot freshman outside hitter, added 18 while junior setter Talyn Jackson contributed a triple double to help spark Douglas (12-4 Sierra League, 23-9 overall) in the rivalry match at Randy Green Court.

After dropping the first set, the Tigers rallied to win by game scores of 19-25, 25-23, 25-8, 25-21.

In the process, the Tigers clinched second-place in the final league standings and earned the right to host McQueen (No. 3 High Desert League seed) in the first round of the Northern 4A Region Tournament on Tuesday.

Carson (11-5, 21-10) dropped into third-place and will travel to Reno (No. 2 High Desert seed) for its opening round playoff match on Tuesday.

Jackson handed out 44 assists to go with 17 service points and 14 digs for the Tigers.

The difference for Douglas from its five-set loss at Carson on Oct. 11 was consistency from the service line and on defense, coach Suzi Townsell observed.

“We cleaned up our services, which is the key to getting your offense going,” she said. “Tonight, we had eight missed serves. We had 15 the last time, and some of those came in game-point situations.

“And our defense was lights out tonight,” the Douglas coach added. “Our blocking was key and so was our defense in general … we were picking up a lot of balls just by being ready and anticipating well.”

The difference for the Senators was their inability to get off to good starts in each of the four sets.

They fell behind 9-3 in the second set, 20-5 in third.

“The frustrating part was spotting them six, seven points out of the chute,” Carson coach Robert Maw said.

“Not being able to handle our emotions was probably our biggest problem.”

He quickly added praise for the Tigers’ Peterson and 6-foot sophomore Hailey Hughes in the middle.

“Give credit to their middles, No. 9 (Peterson) and No. 10 (Hughes),” Maw said. “They hit well and they hit quick. As much as we’ve been working on blocks we were not able to check them.”

Jaycie Roberts led Carson with 15 kills and 13 digs. Keelin Pilgrim, on the right side, also contributed 11 kills and eight digs.

Abby Pradere led the defense with 22 digs and Natalie Anderson had 36 assists.

Now, the Senators are looking to regroup for the region tournament.

“We’re not done playing volleyball,” he said. “The girls are working hard … and we’re in regionals.”