What started out as a promising night, ended in disappointment for the Carson High volleyball squad.
The Senators, despite 20 kills by Juliana Anderson, lost 25-20, 25-27, 11-25 and 22-25 to Reed on Tuesday night at Morse Burley Gym in a Division I crossover match.
Carson, which entered the match tied for third with Wooster in the Sierra League, dropped to 5-6 in league play. Carson visits first-place Manogue at 6 p.m. Thursday.
“Our youth showed tonight,” Carson coach Robert Maw said. “The girls played great in the first game, but we struggled putting three good games together. In the second game, we missed four serves in a row, and you can’t miss serves at this level. Gina (Peacock) was out tonight with strep throat, and not having her meant I couldn’t move my middles around like I wanted.
“We control our own destiny. We need everybody to show up.”
Maw acknowledged that only having Anderson scoring consistently up front made it tough.
Yana Spence and Kylie Riske had just four kills apiece, while Savannah Smith added three.
Anderson was dominant in the opening game with six of her match-high 20 putdowns.
Two of those kills came in the latter stages of the first set when Carson rallied from a 19-17 deficit to win. Madison Funk had a hitting error to make it 19-18, but she redeemed herself with a kill to make it 20-18.
Those were the Raiders’ last points, as two Anderson kills, an ace by Makenzie Tucker and four Reed mistakes enabled Carson to close out the match.
Anderson had eight kills in the second game, but it wasn’t enough.
Trailing 16-14, Reed ran off five straight points to take a 19-16 lead.
Emilie Braun had a kill, and Carson was called for four hits once and then had back-to-back hitting errors by Allison Kibbe and Smith.
A dink by Danielle Good and three Reed mistakes enabled Carson to take a 20-19 lead. Smith misfired on a serve, enabling the Raiders to tie the match at 20.
Moriah Malutoga pushed a ball past the Carson defense and Annie Braun served up an ace to make it 22-20.
Carson tied the match at 22 on a Reed hitting errors and a Riske quick spike in the middle.
With the score tied at 23, Carson’s Jaycie Roberts netted a serve, but Anderson re-tied the game. The teams traded service errors, leaving the score tied at 25.
A kill by Emilie Braun and an ace by Annie Braun ended the game, tying the match at 1.
The third game wasn’t even close.
Anderson had all of Carson’s four kills in the set, while Funk had six kills in the game. Reed, leading 7-5, scored six straight points to take a commanding 13-5 lead. Carson was able to cut the defict to seven twice (13-6 and 14-7), but a late 8-2 run put the game out of reach for the Senators.
In the final game, Carson had leads of 6-3, 9-8 and 24-21, but couldn’t hold on.
The Senators took the 24-21 lead thanks to a 6-0 run which wiped out a 21-18 deficit.
Spence and Sarah Christl had key kills in the Carson comeback.
A kill by Emilie Braun ended the match.
Funk led Reed with 12 kills.