Dave Maxwell
Pahranagat Valley topped White Pine, 3-1, in volleyball action Sept. 25. Pahranagat Valley plays in the Boulder City Invitational tournament this Friday and Saturday.
Overtime in volleyball games is usually rare, but it can happen. So it was in game four of Pahranagat Valley High School’s 3-1 non-league win over White Pine in Alamo on Sept. 25.
A normal score for a volleyball game is 25 points, and beyond that can technically be considered overtime.
White Pine won the first game of the match, 25-14. Pahranagat won the next two, 25-14, 25-18. Game four had all the excitement and drama of the final two minutes of a tied championship game with the Panthers pulling out the victory and the match with a 32-30 score.
The Ladycats dominated the Panthers in the first game with effective use of the double block on kill shots.
Coach Milly Walch said that, to counteract the double block in the next games, “We decided to either hit the ball harder to deflect the ball off the block or we were going to just tip it over, be smart, and find other spots.”
Game two and three went Pahranagat’s way for the most part, although White Pine did come back in game three, after being down 18-8, to tie the game before the Lady Panthers took the win.
Game four was tight all the way, back and forth, point for point. And so it went to a 24-23 advantage for Pahranagat Valley. However, White Pine tied the game at 24.
From there, both teams failed five times to make match point when they had the advantage.
Finally, tied at 30, Pahranagat got the final two points on Becca Taylor’s service, with match point coming on a kill that went off the hands of a White Pine player and out of bounds.
Pahranagat senior Hannah Castleton said going for match point was pretty tiring, “But when you’re down a point like that, it pumps you up, and being tired is the last thing you think of, and the mindset becomes ‘got to get the point.’”
Walch said she attributed the drama to the fact that “both teams wanted that final match point. We just wanted it a little bit more. Our girls never let up.”
The teams will play again on Oct. 23 in Ely.
This Friday and Saturday, Pahranagat Valley participates in the Boulder City Invitational which will feature three defending state championship teams: 3A Boulder City, 2A The Meadows, and 1A Pahranagat Valley.
