Galena volleyball sweeps past Fallon

RENO - Galena's volleyball team remained unbeaten in league play as the defending state champs downed Fallon in straight sets - 25-12, 25-17 and 25-21 - Tuesday night at Galena.

The Grizzlies improved to 9-0 in the High Desert League, 27-8 overall, while the Greenwave evened its league record at 5-5, 8-11 overall.

Galena coach Teresa Burrows said her team moved the ball fluidly which allowed her setter to give the outside and middle hitters good looks down the court.

"When you have the ball control you can do that," the 13th-year coach said. "It helps considerably. When we can do that, we can utilize all our hitters."

Burrows kept in mind Fallon's toughness and focused on defending the Wave's power hitters.

"I knew Fallon was going to come in and play real hard," Burrows said. "They're a good team. I don't think the scores necessarily indicated how tough of a match it was."

The Grizzlies held Fallon's best hitters, Bethany Ellis, Jessica Daum and Whitney Adams, to only 14 kills. Daum led the Wave with seven kills, Daum had four and Ellis finished with three.

Galena finished the match with 42 kills with 14 coming from Julia Mailander and 11 from her sister, Lydia.

Thalia McCann had a good performance by dishing out 28 assists and tallying six kills.

According to Burrows, this game was one of McCann's best overall.

"Thalia was doing a great job," Burrows said. "This is probably one of the better matches she set. Her matches are improving and improving with each match under her belt."

Fallon coach Nathan Hallet gave praise to McCann because of her ability to move all over the court.

"The setter from Galena is a fantastic setter," Hallet said. "She's able to get to balls and then set balls nobody else in our league can."

Galena did well on the defensive end with 10 blocks and 54 digs. Lydia Mailander led the team with 15 and Julia Mailander added 14.

Hallet said playing against a team like Galena gives his coaching staff a good idea on what to work on during practice.

"This kind of exposes some of the things we need to work on," the first-year coach said. "Galena's a good team and there's no reason we can't compete with them. We can definitely compete with them."