Carson High senior Riley Kolsch passes out one of her eight assists Wednesday night, during the Senators’ Senior Night.
Photo by Jeff Mulvihill, Jr. | InstaImage.
Sure, Carson High volleyball wanted to win on Senior Night.
That’s not much of a question. However, if there was a contest that the Senators could afford to lose it was Wednesday night’s scrap with rival Douglas.
Carson had already clinched the No. 4 seed and a win over the Tigers would’ve only potentially changed Douglas’ seeding.
Tuesday night will be the third meeting between Carson and Douglas this season.
The regional opener between the four and five seeds will be back a Carson High with a 6 p.m. start.
Even in the result Wednesday, Senior Night also wasn’t a performance that disappointed.
“We had a great hitting night. Our serve-receive was decent,” said Carson High head coach Brittany Witter. “Our energy was good. I’m not upset about anything. I think just silly errors took the game from us.”
(Carson High's Anna Turner goes up for an attack against Douglas Wednesday night. Turner had 12 kills in a four-set loss to the Tigers. / Jeff Mulvihill, Jr. | InstaImage)
Closing out the season
After besting McQueen in five sets Tuesday night – 18-25, 25-21, 15-25, 25-20, 15-12 – Carson may have spent more energy than intended heading into the final night of the regular season.
Douglas took the first two sets Wednesday night, jumping out to a commanding lead.
“I think they made less errors tonight,” said Witter of Douglas.
The third set was all Carson’s.
The Senators never trailed in the third set and went on an 8-2 run to close out the set after leading 17-16.
Anna Turner had one of her three blocks on the night during that run while Riley Kolsch also stuffed one Tiger attack.
Turner and Sarah Miller had 12 kills apiece for Carson while Abby Franco and Dayna Myrehn had 11 and eight kills, respectively.
It’ll be a quick turnaround for the Senators and the royal blue and white will have to have a short memory.
Confidence will be crucial; especially since the road team has won each of the first two meetings between the squads this season.
“I think we have to come in confident and not let this game impact us in any way,” said Witter. “I think strong serving is going to play a role and then minimizing our errors.”
Carson will have five seniors depart after this season.
Those five will be Kolsch, Erin Peterson, Gabi Green, Alyson Murphy and Alena Mitchell.
“This is a hard group to lose. We are losing probably one of the strongest setters we’ve had in a few years,” said Witter. “Then some good defensive specialists as well. It’s going to be lots of open spots next year, but big shoes to fill. We will miss them.”