Volleyball: Douglas sweeps South Tahoe

South Tahoe tried to catch Douglas looking back to the volleyball team that it blistered in three games Oct. 1 in Minden.

The Vikings played with the minimum six players that night because a flu bug had decimated more than half of the team.

Douglas encountered an entirely different Vikings' squad on their senior night on Tuesday in South Lake Tahoe. And the fourth-ranked Tigers were a few point swings away from being a possible upset victim.

As it was, the Tigers sweated out 25-17, 25-23 and 25-20 victories to raise their Sierra League to 9-4. South Tahoe dropped to 0-13, with its season finale scheduled for Thursday at Damonte Ranch.

"We expected really big things, and I think we played really well," said STHS senior Terra Backinger.

Trailing 17-15 in the first game, Mysta Townsell steadied the Tigers' shaky serving game. Douglas had six service errors before Townsell put all of her serves in play to key the Tigers' 10-0 run to end the first game.

"We need to get the ball in play. Once we did that, the girls were like, 'Now we're OK to start playing,'" said Douglas coach Suzi Townsell.

South Tahoe junior Ellen Dupree had three kills in the first game, but Douglas' Shannon Dugan pounded three of her five opening-game kills in the final four points.

The Vikings also had their chances to win the second game. After a Rachel Kaufer kill gave South Tahoe its largest lead of the game, 17-13, a pair of Dugan put-aways helped the Tigers pull into a 17-17 tie.

Both teams took turns leading by two points before South Tahoe sophomore Page Gustofson's serve glanced off a Douglas player, who was trying to get out of the way near the backline, to retie the score at 23. But Douglas claimed the game on a Dugan smash and a dink by Emily Garcia.

Dugan delivered three more kills as Douglas shot out to an 11-4 lead in the final game. South Tahoe made a late charge behind kills by Dupree and Kaufer and a service ace by Tiffany Racz, but Douglas was able to avoid a fourth game.