Fernley volleyball to battle Dayton Thursday for No. 1 playoff seed

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

The No. 1 seed for next week’s Northern 3A Region Tournament will be on the line Thursday night when Fernley visits Dayton.

The Vaqueros outlasted Lowry in five sets last Saturday to maintain a one-game lead in the East Division of the Northern 3A with an 8-2 record. Dayton is second at 7-3, but won the first meeting with Fernley, so Dayton would win a tiebreaker if it were to sweep the season series with a win Thursday.

The No. 1 seed gets a bye to the region semifinals and only has to win one match against either the West No. 2 or East No. 3 seed to reach the championship game and qualify for the state tournament. The No. 2 seed would have to face the No. 3 team from the West, then in the semifinal match would have to play the West No. 1 seed, which is likely to be Truckee. The tournament will be held Nov. 5-6 in Fallon.

Saturday, the Vaqueros dominated the second and third sets and then had to hold on in the fifth to claim the win against Lowry, 22-25, 25-9, 25-10, 25-22, 15-12.

“In the earlier game we made more errors on our own, and in those two games where we did really well, we had fewer errors and Lowry had more,” said assistant coach DeAnn Jacobson, who was filling in for head coach Stephanie Felton.

Willow Jacobson had 22 kills, two blocks and 11 digs to lead Fernley at the net, while Aly Sullivan had 24 digs and Leahi Hale made 21 assists.

DeAnn Jacobson said the league has been evenly matched all season.

“You have people winning here, and then they don’t here,” she said.