Volleyball: Vaqueros to face Fallon to open Northern 3A Tournament

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

Back on Aug. 28, Fernley and Fallon hooked up for an epic five-set tussle to open league play, that Fernley survived for a 3-2 win.

When the teams met again on Oct. 11, Fernley had to stave off several set points in winning the first set 32-30 before eeking out a 3-0 win despite each set going to the wire.

At stake in their third meeting will be a berth in the Northern 3A semifinals and a chance to play for a trip to the State Tournament.

The No. 3 seeded Vaqueros and 6-seeded Greenwave will meet at 6:45 p.m. Friday in the first round of the Northern 3A Tournament in Truckee, with the winner to face South Tahoe in the semifinals at 1:45 p.m. Saturday. The championship match will be contested after the semifinals.

Although six gams in the standings separate the Vaqueros, who tied for third with Elko at 13-5, and Fallon, which finished 7-11, it was a far different story head-to-head.

The Vaqueros had to rally in the first meeting to win 24-26, 25-16, 16-25, 26-24, 15-10 after staving off match point in the fourth set.

Then in the rematch, Fallon served for the win several times in the first set before Fernley finally pulled it out, but all three sets were close, 32-30, 25-21, 26-24.

The Vaqueros enter the tournament off a highly competitive loss at South Tahoe in the final match of the regular season on Oct. 30, 26-28, 21-25, 26-24, 15-25.

Willow Jacobson accounted for 20 of Fernley’s 46 kills and had nine digs, while Colby Johnson added 10 kills and seven digs. Natalie Stewart had 30 assists, while Reese Richardson had 16.