FALLON — At the halfway point of the Northern 3A East Division part of the schedule, the Churchill County High School volleyball team finds itself with some ground to make up.
The Greenwave lost two of three matches last week to division opponents, falling from first to third place with a 3-2 league record. More importantly, the Greenwave is one of four teams tied with nine total points in the standings and currently outside of the top four in the race to earn a home match for the first round of the regional tournament.
At 3-2, the Greenwave are tied for third in the East Division, but playoff seeds will be determined by total points in the standings, with two points awarded for winning a crossover match against a team from the opposing division, and one for beating a team in the same division.
Pictured right: Fallon’s Eve Williams tries to hit over a pair of Fernley blockers. Photo by Robert Perea
That format was created to ensure that if one division was stronger than the other, it would get more teams into the tournament. Fernley and Spring Creek lead the East with 4-1 records, but Fernley has five crossover wins to Spring Creek’s three and leads the division with 14 points. Spring Creek has 10.
In the West South Tahoe is first at 5-0 and Truckee is second at 4-1, but both are 5-0 against the East, so South Tahoe has 15 points and Truckee 14.
Fallon, Elko, Dayton and Incline all have nine points.
The four teams that finish with the most points will be the top four seeds and host the first round of the playoffs, with the semifinals and finals scheduled to be played at South Tahoe.
The Greenwave lost two of three matches last week, falling in four sets at Fernley on Tuesday, beating Elko in five on Friday and ending the week with a five-set loss to Spring Creek.
The Fernley match was a battle in each of the first three sets, After Fernley won the first set 25-23, the Greenwave had the Vaqueros facing set point in the second set, but Fernley staved it off and scored the last three points to pull out a 26-24 win. Fallon stayed alive with a 25-20 win in the third set, but Fernley took the fourth 25-14.
Raegan Johnson had 18 kills for the Greenwave, while Audrey Fruzza added eight and Sutton Yost knocked down six. Fallon’s back row kept several long rallies alive, with Fruzza and Layla Walker both making 15 digs. Hayden Dooley had 11 digs and Kalaya Downs had nine.
Friday the Greenwave beat Elko in five sets, with the back row again extending rallies with 87 total digs. Walker had 25 of them, Downs added 14, and Ava Bunyard handled 11.
Downs had 30 assists, most of them to Johnson, who finished with 23 kills.
The third match of the week against Spring Creek went down to the wire, before the Spartans went home with the 21-25, 25-18, 16-25, 25-22, 15-12 win.
Johnson had 27 kills and as a team the Greenwave finished with 45, taking advantage of 42 assists by Downs. Fruzza added six kills and Kadence Wiessmer made five.
Walker led the back row with 22 digs.
The Greenwave were scheduled to step out of league play Tuesday to face Carson, then host a rematch with Fernley Thursday at 6 p.m. They also host Dayton next Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Below: Fallon’s Kadence Wiessmer tries to spike the ball toward the corner. Photo by Robert Perea
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