The Douglas volleyball team was facing a tough test with Sierra League second-place Reno High School coming to town for the Tigers' senior night.
The Lady Tigers more than held their own, however, battling the Huskies through four tough games before Reno prevailed 25-15, 23-25, 26-24, 25-23 at Douglas Tuesday night.
The match took nearly an hour and a half once it got rolling, with both teams turning in long rally point after long rally point.
While seniors Alex Risko (12 kills, three blocks), Megan Myers (six kills, four blocks, two aces), Ali Witteman (three kills, three blocks), Kaelie Hall (four kills, one digs, one block) and Bonnie Matheson (two aces, three digs) all made big contributions for the Tigers, it was the Douglas underclassmen that came up big for the Tigers.
Sophomore Jessica Waggoner had 14 kills and 19 blocks and Megan Mitchell had 33 assists and two aces.
Alyssa Todd emerged as a solid threat in the middle with nine blocks and two kills. Mary Lombino had six digs to lead the Tiger defense.
Reno picked up the win in game one and built a 15-8 lead through the second game, appearing to be ready to run away with the entire match.
Douglas capitalized on a series of Reno errors however, and got some big play from Waggoner, Risko and Mitchell to take the second with a 17-8 run down the stretch.
The teams battled back-and-forth through the third before Reno was able to pull ahead on a kill and an ace after the teams had fought to a 24-24 tie.
Reno jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the fourth and extended that to 9-2 before Douglas rallied back to 13-10 with some heady play from Mitchell and several Reno errors.
The Huskies went on another run, stretching the lead to 17-10 before the Tigers put together an 11-3 run with kills from Risko and Myers and some more errant shots from Reno.
Douglas narrowed it more to 23-22 but couldn't pull any closer as Reno closed out the match with a kill.
Douglas dropped to 19-11 overall and 9-4 in league play with the loss.
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
