Defending Division IV state champion Pahranagat Valley went 2-2 to open the season at the Lake Mead Girls Holiday Classic at both Lake Mead and Calvary Chapel.
Nevertheless, coach Amy Huntsman said the girls took second place in the preseason tournament.
PVHS opened with Lake Mead and Kalli Hosier had 16 points to help the Panthers top the Eagles 46-35. Karley Whipple added 10 points for Pahranagat Valley. The girls were 3-of-8 at the foul line.
Savannah Schmidt led Lake Mead with 20 points.
PVHS led only 26-23 at the half, but outscored the Eagles 20-12 in the second half.
As it turned out, that was the only game for which statistics were available.
In their second game the girls lost to the Bishop Gorman JV’s, 28-14, bounced backed with a tight 34-31 win over West Wendover, which put them into the championship game with a club team from Haileybury College in Melbourne, Australia, a school with a total enrollment of over 3,600.
Alamo lost 37-15, and Huntsman said, “Considering a 10-team tournament and the size of our school and we have a young team, I thought we did a nice job. All the girls played really well. Jamie Hansen was very aggressive for us.”
This weekend, Dec. 11-13, the girls participate in the Virginia City tournament and play Eureka, Battle Mountain, Smith Valley, and McDermitt, but not host Virginia City.
“I don’t have any expectations.” Huntsman said. “It will be nice to see some of those teams and what they’ve got and how we match up with them.”
Interesting to note, the former Eureka coach Ken Fuji, whose team lost to PVHS in last year’s state finale, has moved over to the head coaching position at Virginia City.
On Dec. 17, the team hosts Lincoln County in a non-league game.
Alamo won the game last year, after Lincoln had won five in a row since 2007.
