Senators serve with distinction

Rachael DeRiemer, Alyssa Wilson and the Carson High School volleyball team served with distinction in its season home opening victory against Reed on Thursday.

DeRiemer rang up 10 aces overall and Wilson had a string of six straight to help close out game three as the Senators swept past the Raiders in the non-league match at Morse Burley Gymnasium. Carson won 15-4, 15-5, 15-0.

"I like the direction we're going," Carson coach Daryl James said. "We didn't play great at Spanish Springs (Tuesday), then at practice yesterday, the kids had a little meeting and figured some things out and ended up having a good practice. That seemed to carry over today because I thought they came out pretty focused to take care of our side of the court."

The Senators aced their test, so to speak. As a team, they had 22 aces, nine of which came in the third-game shutout.

"I thought our serving was great," James said. "I thought we coasted a little in the second game (six serving errors), but then everyone seemed to pick it up in the last game."

DeRiemer, a senior outside hitter who earned all-region honors last year, served up a four-point run to put Carson in the driver's seat in game one and followed that up with another four-point run to close out the game.

In game two, the Senators broke a 5-5 tie on back-to-back aces by Tabitha Adams. Then Adams fed DeRiemer a quick set for a kill over the middle and then DeRiemer served up two more aces to extend Carson's lead to 12-5.

Shannon Devereaux served three aces and Teresa Niederer put down a kill over the middle to help stake Carson to a quick 6-0 lead in game three. DeRiemer's cross-court kill gave the Senators a 9-0 lead. Wilson, who is still recovering from a twisted ankle, served six straight aces, including five after a Reed timeout.

DeRiemer finished the match with 12 kills, according to James. Devereaux added eight, Kaitlin Brush six, Niederer five, Colleen Doyle four, freshman Nicole Scott three. Adams was credited with 38 assists.

"I liked the way we spread the offense out," James said. "Rachael is obviously a force and we like to go to her whenever we can, but we have other people we can go to. That's important because we don't want other teams to be able to camp on our one of our kids."

Katie Lawson and Erin Amodei played well in the back row, according to James, who pointed out that 11 of the team's 12 players (Adrienne Fletcher was out with an ankle injury).

Carson returns to action today against three California opponents in the Reno tournament. The Senators start with a 4 p.m. match at Wooster High School against the traditionally strong Sanger Apaches from California's San Joaquin Valley. The Senators also play North Salinas at 6 p.m., then at 8 p.m. they face defending Northern Section Division II champion Pleasant Valley (Chico).