VOLLEYBALL
DOUGLA 3 SOUTH TAHOE 0
The Tigers, behind the strong play of Michelle Paterson and Dawson Joyce-Mendive, rolled to an easy 25-17, 25-17 and 25-15 win over South Tahoe Tuesday night in a Sierra League match.
The win upped Douglas' record to 2-0 in Sierra League play and 10-2 overall heading into Thursday's match at Hug.
EPaterson finished with 12 kills and only one error in 15 swings, and Joyce-Mendive knocked down eight kills in 20 attempts.
"Overall, I'm very pleased with the way we played," Douglas coach Ted Peterson said. "Our passing was better than it has been the last two matches. Michelle had a phenomenal night. I think she hit about .800.
"Score-wise it looked like an easy match. I think it was aElot closer than the score showed. This was about the match I expected. They lost their best player to graduation last year."
Leading 10-9 in the first game, Douglas scored four straight points, one on a kill by Jenna Baron, for a 14-9 lead. South Tahoe closed the gap to 14-11, but blocks by Baron, Paterson and Cayla Knapp plus a net violation by the Vikings enabled Douglas to increase its lead to 19-13.
A kill by Knapp, an ace serve by Paterson and a kill by Joyce-Mendive made it 22-15. South Tahoe closed to 22-17, but Douglas closed it out with three straight points, the last coming on a perfectly placed ace down the line by Knapp, who finished with seven aces.
In the second game, the match was tied at 3, 5 and 7 before the Tigers surged ahead. South Tahoe, led by Monica Knight (six kills in the game), closed the gap to 13-10. Knapp took over, slamming one off a South Tahoe block and serving up two aces to make it 16-10. Lauren Kelly servedEup two straight points, including an ace, to make it 19-11. Paterson had five of her kills to lead the Tigers' offense.
South Tahoe enjoyed leads of 3-0 and 6-4 in the final game, only to see the Tigers come back with a vengeance. Leading 13-10, kills by Baron and Joyce-Mendive plus an ace by Knapp made it 16-11. A block by South Tahoe's Kim Krouskoupf made it 16-12, but Douglas clicked off five straight points to put the game away. Knight kept South Tahoe in the game with seven kills in the final game.
DOUGLAS GIRLS 2, RENO 0
The Tigers maintained their hold on first place with a 2-0 victory over Reno Tuesday afternoon.
The Tigers are 4-0 in league with wins over North Valleys, Hug, South Tahoe and the Huskies. They play at Wooster on Saturday at 11 a.m.
"We possessed the ball better in the second half," Douglas coach Fred Schmidt said. "The first half we were playing a lot of long ball which we like to do. Sometimes we wear ourselves out. We moved the ball across the field and made them chase us. This was a good win for us, because Reno is a pretty decent team."
Christina Bradshaw scored both Douglas goals, one in each half. She scored in the seventh minute off assists by Hannah Sullivan and Courtney Lenheart. The latter took a pass from Sullivan and fired a shot that bonced of the hands of Reno goalie Dawn Davis. Bradshaw followed it in to give Douglas a 1-0 lead.
The rest of the half was played in the midfield, as neither team had many scoring opportunities. Douglas' Allison Chapman blasted one off Davis' hands in the 34th minute, and Reno's Jessica Mack had a shot blocked from about 10 yards away in the 37th minute.
Chapman had another good opportunity at the 46-minute mark, but lost control of the ball before she could get off a kick.
Two minutes later, Bradshaw gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead when she dribbled past a couple of Reno defenders and slipped the ball by Davis. Mackenzie Porter was credited with an assist on the play.
"The passing was pretty intense and we were playing heads up," Bradshaw said, describing her first goal. "Hannah sent a through ball to Courtney and when her shot bounced off the goalie, I had an easy run at it. On the second one, we had a lot of good passes. Mackenzie made a good pass, and I just had to get by a couple of defenders."
Thanks to better ball control and a stifling defense led by Jessica Maule, Jennifer Jaggard, Krysten Bartshe and Meghan Olsen, Reno managed just two shots the rest of the game.
It made for an easy day for Andrea Bryant, who had to make just four saves all day.
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