Volleyball: No. 3 Reno stuns Lady Tigers

The Douglas and Reno High volleyball teams took different paths to Tuesday night's Sierra League matchup in Minden between the two regional front-runners.

Douglas carried a 13-match win-streak over Northern Nevada opponents, a 6-0 home record, a 6-0 league record and the No. 1 ranking in the Sierra Nevada Sports Media Poll.

Reno came in with equally impressive credentials, piling up a 6-0 league record of its own, but the Huskies had flown mostly under the radar while quietly climbing to the No. 3 ranking.

In probably the most hotly-contested match in the Northern 4A this year, the Huskies managed to scrap out a four-game win that lasted nearly two hours, saw 23 lead changes and an uncountable number of marathon rally points.

Reno recovered from a slow start after losing the first game 25-15 and handed Douglas three-consecutive close losses, 25-22, 26-24 and 26-24.

The Tigers had chances to pull away in each of the last two games but the Huskies recovered with 5-0 and 4-0 runs respectively to steal each one away.

Douglas appeared ready to roll in the first game as the Tigers came out and plastered the Huskies with an early 9-2 run to take an 18-9 lead. Douglas pushed ahead for the win but Reno was far from finished.

The Huskies rolled ahead with an 18-11 advantage, but Douglas scrapped back into it with a 5-2 stretch that worked the score to 19-16 in favor of Reno.

The Tigers pushed ahead to score six of the next 11 points, but the Huskies put the game away when Douglas sent the ball sailing out of bounds.

Douglas had one of its most impressive runs of the season in game three, putting together a 9-0 stretch after falling behind 21-15 to put the Huskies at game point trailing 24-21.

Reno took advantage of a series of Tiger errors, however, and put together a 5-0 run of its own for the win.

Game four had a nearly identical finish as Douglas scratched together a 24-22 lead before Reno came up with kills on four of the final five points to take the upset win on the road.

Douglas had some spectacular individual performances in the loss as Megan Mitchell put together a career night with 34 assists, 16 blocks and six kills.

Sophomore Jourdan Burke had a career-high 19 kills to go with two blocks and two aces and Jessica Waggoner had 11 blocks.

Bridget Maestretti finished with seven kills and 10 blocks and Melissa Brown had five kills and eight blocks.

Alyssa Todd and Allie Hughes completed Douglas' strong front line with four and three blocks respectively. Mary Lombino had 11 digs, Taryn Williams had four kill and two blocks and Christine DuPuis finished with two kills and two digs.

Mysta Townsell and Jordan Marsh each had two aces as each Douglas player recorded at least one statistic.

Douglas dropped to 24-4 on the year and 6-1 in league play.