Lady Wave slowly warms up

RENO — Patty Daum wasn’t fond how her team approached Monday’s non-conference match against North Valleys.

“We didn’t show up to play. We were a little lackadaisical,” Daum said. “We were giving no respect to North Valleys. We assumed they would play like our summer scrimmages.”

After a sluggish start, the Lady Wave volleyball rebounded to win three-straight games, defeating its second 4A opponent of the season, 22-25, 25-16, 25-16 and 25-15, at the north Reno school.

“These guys are going to have to learn to come in more competitive and not play the tempo of the other team,” Daum said.

Fallon (6-3 overall, 2-1 Northern 3A) returns to league action tonight in its second of four games this week. The Lady Wave hosts winless Sparks (0-3) at 6 p.m. at the Elmo Dericco Gymnasium. Fallon will be back on the road when it travels to Elko County to play Spring Creek (1-3) on Friday and Elko (1-3) on Saturday.

Daum, though, is pleased where the team sits at this point in the season. Fallon’s lone league loss was to state favorite Truckee and it still has to face undefeated Dayton twice and Truckee one more time.

“I like where this team is at and we know also where we need to be at the end of the season,” she said. “We have to keep working at it and getting better. This week is tough.”

The senior-led effort of Haylee Paladini (11 kills), Whitney Skabelund (eight kills) and setter Zoey Swisher (23 assists) helped Fallon dominate most of the night.

Seniors LeAnn Stands and Kayla Buckmaster contributed five kills, junior Faith Cornmesser added three and seniors Aleisa Billips and Swisher had two in the all-round effort. Sophomore Lorynn Fagg led the team in aces with three while Skabelund, Paladini, Swisher and Buckmaster each had one. Skabelund also had eight assists.

Cornmesser and Billips also played solid defense at the net, leading Fallon with six total blocks, and Stands added four. Paladini was as effective on the floor as she was at the net, leading the team with five digs. Fagg added four digs and sophomore Journey Martin and Buckmaster had three.