After an inspired start, the Douglas volleyball team couldn't fend off the aggressive Damonte Ranch attack Saturday afternoon as the Mustangs advanced to the regional championship match with a four-game win over the Tigers at Galena High School.
After losing the first game, Damonte Ranch powered through the last three, gaining momentum with each in a 23-25, 25-19, 25-10, 25-13 win.
Douglas showed off a renewed approach to its passing game, spreading the ball evenly to five different hitters, which made it difficult for the Mustangs to set up a consistent block early on.
Megan Myers finished with eight kills, Alex Risko and Jessica Waggoner each finished with seven, Ali Witteman had five and Bridget Maestretti finished with four.
Megan Mitchell had 32 assists in the match.
The teams battled point-for-point early on, but Damonte pulled ahead to 21-15 behind kills from Riece Steel and Colleen Carlson.
Damonte was then called for a bobble on the ball and Douglas proceeded to rattle off a 10-2 run, highlighted by three Myers kills and a Risko kill to take the first game 25-23.
The teams again matched point-for-point to the 14-14 mark but some service errors and some miscommunications on player positioning by Douglas allowed Damonte to pull ahead.
The Tigers fought back with kills from Maetretti, Risko, and Myers and Risko put up three of her four aces in the match in game two, but the Mustangs put it away.
The Tigers fought to within four points in the third game, but disaster struck as Damonte rattled off 10 consecutive points to pull away. The Damonte run was speckled with some disputed calls on tipped spikes and net faults, but the Tigers were unable to pull out of it.
Douglas took a 6-3 lead in the fourth and pushed that to 8-5 with kills from Mitchell and Kaelie Hall, but Damonte tied the game up at eight and quickly pushed ahead to 17-10 with a string of kills and blocks from the Steel sisters, Scharae and Riece.
Damonte rode a 9-3 run to close out the game and the match as the Tigers either hit the ball out, mis-hit or hit too many times on the final four points of the game.
Douglas wrapped up its season at 21-12 overall, having upset No. 2 McQueen Friday night in four sets.
It marked the third time this season Douglas lost to Damonte Ranch, which is coached by former Tiger coach Velvet Steel.
In the first round of the playoffs, Douglas topped No. 2 McQueen in four games, taking a 25-23, 25-21, 18-25, 25-20 victory over the High Desert League champions.
Douglas trailed in the first game, but put together a string to take the win and build their momentum.
Waggoner finished with 20 kills, 11 blocks and one ace and Myers had 16 kills and two blocks.
Risko finished with 11 kills and five blocks and Jennifer Stice finished with nine kills.
Mitchell finished with 57 assists and eight kills.
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
