Carson's Stefanie Schmidt hits against North Valleys on Tuesday night.
Carson High’s volleyball team never trailed Tuesday night against winless North Valleys, but it didn’t dominate like it should have either.
The Senators improved to 4-1 with a 25-16, 25-14 and 25-11 victory at Morse Burley Gym.
Carson closes out the crossover portion of its schedule Thursday night at home against McQueen (6 p.m. start).
Coach Robert Maw said he was happy to see his team win, but he knows his team could have played much better.
“Very uninspiring,” he said. “I asked the girls to inspire me tonight, but I think we fell short of that. We got the job done. We didn’t seem to have a sense of urgency out there.
“The middles didn’t get very involved tonight, and we’re going to need them to be involved on Thursday against McQueen because I’m sure McQueen will be focused on stopping Jayce (Roberts).”
The middles weren’t effective because Carson wasn’t able to get its up tempo offense going on a consistent basis.
“I think Jaycie had a productive night and so did Ari,” Maw said.
Most of Roberts’ 10 kills came from the outside. Ditto for Ari Schmidt who had seven kills. Ku’ulei Haupu was the most effective middle with five kills and six blocks. Schmidt hit at a season-best 54 percent.
In each of the three games, Carson had a long service run.
Carson opened with a 5-0 run, as Natalie Anderson served up an ace, Keelin Pilgrim had a kill and so did Haupu.
North Valleys hung tough, and Olivia Clark’s kill cut Carson’s lead to 13-10. A dink by Anderson and two kills by Roberts made it 16-10,
The Panthers kept the deficit at six points until a kill by Pilgrim, an ace serve by Maya Vasquez and a bad pass by the Panthers closed out the match.
Carson held a 7-3 lead in the second game, and then ran off eight straight points for a 15-3 lead. Six of those mistakes came on NV errors.
Carson stretched the lead to 19-5 on two errors and a kill by Shea DeJoseph.
DeJoseh served up an ace to make it 22-8, but the Panthers scored six of the next seven to make it 23-14 before a kill by Roberts and a service ace by Natalia Smith closed out the game.
North Valleys did tie the third game at 4, but a 5-1 run made it 9-5 as Vasquez had a stuff block, Roberts had two kills and Schmidt had a kill off the net.
The turning point came when the Senators put together a 12-1 run with Pilgrim and then Abby Pradere (7 digs) at the service line. The surge gave CHS a 24-9 advantage.
Schmidt had two kills, Roberts had three, Haupu had one, and Pilgrim and Pradere each served up an ace.
“I think we were looking ahead to the McQueen match,” Maw said. “We did some weight work and the girls said they were a little sore.”
Anderson had a solid setting day, and she also had two aces, three blocks and seven digs.
• In JV action, Carson carved out a 25-17, 23-25 and 15-4 victory.
Carson served up 21 aces, eight by Audrey Breeding.
