Wins in the early season are useful in helping a team see what they need to work on. Losses are good for that too, but winning is more fun. And Pahranagat Valley girls volleyball did that last weekend in the Lake Mead Fall Classic. The Lady Panthers volleyball team rallied for a 28-30, 25-15, 15-9 win over Calvary Chapel on Saturday in the championship match.
“It was pretty good competition as far as that match is concerned, a couple of the others weren’t that great,” said coach Ginger Whipple. “But we did get to use all of our players. That was good for them. They all did some really good things.”
She said Brook Higbee and Karley Whipple were selected to the All-Tournament team and Whipple earned the Most Valuable Player award.
Pahranagat opened play on Friday with a win over a descent Lake Mead squad 25-17, 25-16; beat Calvary Chapel in pool play 25-13, 19-25, 15-10; blanked Somerset Academy (an independent school near Centennial Hills Hospital in Las Vegas) 25-9, 25-6; topped Liberty Baptist 25-12, 25-19 in the semifinals and faced Calvary Chapel again in the finals.
Whipple said an interesting thing she learned about Liberty Baptist is they have no gymnasium and practice outdoors on concrete. “They don’t rent a place to use except for home matches. It’s tough to dive for the ball on the hard concrete outdoors, and in our match they were scrappy, not at all afraid to dive to dig out a ball. They’ve improved a lot over last year, and to improve as much as they have with no facilities is impressive.”
Regarding the Panther girls themselves Whipple said, “We are still working out the kinks in our own game, who covers where, who is supposed to take what ball, and our serve/receive isn’t where I would like it to be, but we’re getting there.”
On Sept. 10, Virgin Valley beat PVHS 25-12, 20-25, 25-19, 25-23, which was the first time the Lady Panthers had lost to the Bulldogs since 2008. But they do get to see them again in the Boulder City Invitational Sept. 25-26.
Tuesday this week Pahranagat (7-1) played at Lincoln County and rolled right along with a 25-15, 23-25, 25-20, 25-18 win.
PVHS played Lake Mead on Thursday and travels to Tonopah (3-5, 1-0) to open league play today.
