Galena surprises Gators in volleyball action

RENO - It seems as though the Galena High School volleyball team has been playing catchup all season.

After losing their first two matches of the Northern 4A season at Douglas and then Carson, the Grizzlies fought back to capture second-place in their High Desert League race and then third-place at the Northern 4A Regional Tournament.

And on Thursday afternoon, the Grizzlies rallied from behind on their own home court to knock off Green Valley in a four-set struggle in opening round play of the NIAA/U.S. Bank 4A State Tournament.

Kellie Burton, who on Wednesday signed a national-letter-of-intent with the University of Arizona, pounded down 30 kills to lead the Grizzlies to their 15-11, 9-15, 15-8, 15-13. Even when they found themselves trailing in games three and four, the Grizzlies were confident of their chances to beat the Sunrise Region champion Gators.

"No, our team was so fired up, I knew we could come back anyway," said Burton, who had nine kills in her team's first- and fourth-game victories. "That's one of our strengths, although we would rather not have to come back."

The Grizzlies (22-10) get another chance to play today when they face Douglas in the semifinals at 12:30 p.m. at Galena. This will be a rematch of the Northern 4A Regional semifinals, which Douglas won.

Green Valley, the 4A state runner-up in both 1998 and '99, ends its season with a 22-2 record.

"Green Valley is a very good ball club," Galena coach Teresa Burrows said. "They were were No. 1 in their division, so I knew it was going to be a battle. I just hoped our girls would be ready to play and not make many mistakes. And we just stepped it up and played very, very well.

"Our three seniors, Ashley (Satterwhite), Tammie (Nettleton) and Kellie (Burton) did a great job, Lauren (Wallace, setter) did a great job of distributing the ball, and defensively, we just played outstanding."

With the match even at one game each, Green Valley jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the third game. The Grizzlies came back to tie the score at 7-all and took the lead for good when Wallace set Nettleton, who put the ball down against a double team block.

Game 4 followed a similar pattern when the Gators led 5-0, 7-5, 9-7 and 11-7. Wallace, who was credited with 43 assists, turned into a killer down the stretch as the junior put down one ball that brought Galena to within 11-9, and then another that gave the Grizzlies a 14-11 lead. Green Valley rallied back to 14-13 before sophomore Joanna Hixon hammered a Wallace set down the line to close out the game.

Hixon contributed nine kills and 13 digs, Satterwhite had five kills, six blocks and eight digs, while Nettleton had five kills and 15 digs and Seslee Howell five kills and two blocks. Burton finished with 23 digs, the last of which set up the match-winning point.

"The girls showed a lot of character today against a quality team," Burrows said.

"We do that a lot. We string together a few points here and there and that type of stuff. We've been doing that all year long. We've been battling back, and it was real nice we could do it again today against a team like Green Valley."