Douglas beats Centennial in volleyball state tournament

RENO - Forget that the Douglas High School volley

ball team puts a young lineup on the floor. The Tigers are simply playing like veterans now.

The Tigers survived a slow start at the service line and came back to sweep past Centennial in three straight games in their first-round match of the NIAA/U.S. Bank 4A State Tournament on Thursday afternoon at Galena High School.

Douglas won the match 15-8, 15-10, 15-10 to roll into the state tournament semifinals and a shot at host Galena today at 12:30 p.m.

Douglas is now 17-3 on the season and riding a string of state tournament successes in recent years. The Tigers were semifinalists in 1999, state champions in '98 and state runner-up finishers in '97. But this is a new team under the direction of first-year coach Scott Akimoto.

"For a bunch of young kids, this is pretty amazing," Akimoto said. "For the most part, we play three juniors and one sophomore; and Jamie (McCreary) is our only senior and the only returning starter we have back from last year.

"This team has come a long way this season, and it's been fun watching them grow."

Sophomore Emily Haas was one of the big guns for the Tigers as she delivered 11 kills and seven blocks against the Centennial Bulldogs, the No. 2 seed from the Sunset Division who ended their season with an 18-5 record.

"We didn't know anything about the Vegas teams," Haas said. "We were just focused and fired up. We were ready to get out there."

The Tigers had a little trouble early with three serving errors, while Centennial benefitted from a pair of Darci Sandoval kills to take a 5-1 lead. The Tigers had a fourth service error after they rallied back to within 5-4.

"I was just a little nervous," Akimoto said. "It was like, 'Wait a minute, what have we been doing all season, guys. We've been serving balls and working on defense and blocking and everything.' Our blocking and defense have been key for us, and our blocking was pretty amazing today."

Andrea Honer and Haas combined to put down a block to give the Tigers their first lead, 7-6. Then Tess Sheridan served up an ace, prompting Centennial coach Marty Kulesza to call for a timeout. Next, Haas and Honer combined on another successful double team block and the Tigers were up 9-6.

They never looked back.

Douglas showed its usual balanced offense during a contest in which 12 players saw action. Chelsey Myers contributed 10 kills, Megan Brinkmeyer five kills, Jencie LeJeune four kills and Honer three. McCreary triggered the offense with 34 assists.

Needless to say, Akimoto was glad to get past the opening round.

"The first one's under our belt and I'm real happy about that," he said. "I was a little bit nervous walking into this thing, but now it's like, 'We can play with the best of them.' Now it's just, let's play as hard as we can and see what happens."