Vaquero volleyball upset bid falls short in Truckee

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

The momentum the Fernley High School volleyball team brought with them carried over into the first round of the 3A Northern Region Tournament in Truckee last Saturday. But it was ultimately not enough, as the top seeded Truckee Wolverines rallied from behind twice to eliminate the Vaqueros and advance to this week’s semifinals.

Fernley entered the tournament having won five of their last seven matches, and one of the two losses was in five sets to Fallon, the team that ended up being the No. 1 seed from the East League. That prompted coach Zach Wilhelm to say the Vaqueros were playing their best volleyball of the season and were ready to face a No. 1 seed.

And ready, they certainly were.

Fernley won the first two sets, then after Truckee rallied to tie the match 2-2 and sent it to a deciding fifth set, the Vaqueros again jumped in front, and held a 10-5 lead.

However, Truckee rallied once again, to claim the five-set win 23-25, 13-25, 25-21, 25-13, 15-11.

Marli O’Neill led the Vaqueros with 12 kills and 17 digs, while Sage Jackson added nine kills and 14 digs, Kendall Arnaud had six kills and Jennica Stephens had 14 digs. Setters Hunter Lyle and Alauna Escartin each had 13 assists.