Ku'ulei Haupu
RENO — The only good thing about Carson High’s sweep at the hands of Bishop Manogue was that it was quick.
The Senators struggled again with their serve receive, passed poorly and had no answer for Allison Gunderson, Mary Redl-Harge and Emma Pence in a 10-25, 11-25 and 13-25 loss to the Miners on Tuesday in a match that lasted less than an hour.
Carson dropped to 2-1 in Sierra League play and 5-4 overall in Northern 4A. Manogue improved to 4-0 and 6-1. Manogue’s only loss came to Reno.
A line-up snafu meant the Senators couldn’t use Abby Pradere at libero. That got the night off to a weird start, and things snowballed from there. If you can’t make that first pass, you will never establish a rhythm, and if you aren’t in rhythm you won’t play well offensively.
“The first set is on me,” Carson coach Robert Maw said. “I had the wrong person (Abbey Paulson) listed as the libero instead of Abby Pradere. Once the libero is listed you have to play the whole set with that libero, and I was unable to change it (by rule). Our passing was horrendous. We didn’t receive the ball well. It isn’t a matter of us not moving our feet, it’s not reading the ball.
“I don’t have a solution (for the back row). I have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at them to get them to pass. We just have to go back to passing basics. If we pass the ball we can be a formidable team.”
It was rare for Carson to have a clean bump, set and spike.
Bishop Manogue didn’t have that problem. The Miners hit .463 for the night. Gunderson had 12 kills and a .550 percentage, Redl-Harge added 10 kills, and Emma Pence had nine kills and .500 percentage.
“We served well,” Manogue coach Jason Sterrett said. “With their setter and hitters that they have, if they start passing better, they will be a pretty good team down the stretch.
“Our goal was to keep them out of sync. We didn’t want to give them any easy points. I thought we did a good job of that.”
Carson led 3-0 in the first set, and 2-0 and 4-2 in the third set. That was it.
After the Senators’ early outburst in the first set, Manogue scored 14 of the next 16 points to grab a 14-5 lead. In one stretch, Carson had three hitting errors. Redl-Harge had two kills in that onslaught for the Miners and Stefanie Schmidt had two kills for the Senators.
Manogue finished the set with a flourish, scoring nine of the last 12 points. Schmidt finished with three kills in the first set and Shea DeJoseph added two.
The Miners opened the second set with a 9-3 run, as Redl-Harge and Pence had two kills apiece. Gunderson led a 6-1 surge with thee kills, enabling Manogue to stretch its lead to 15-5.
Only once did the Manogue lead slip to under 10 points the rest of the way. Schmidt added two more kills for Carson.
In the third set, Carson scored four of the first six points, but Manogue went on a 15-3 surge to take a 17-7 lead. Schmidt and Ku’ulei Haupu had two third-set blocks apiece.
Carson returns to action at home Thursday at 6 p.m. against Damonte Ranch. The Mustangs are 6-2 overall and 2-0 in league.