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South Tahoe volleyball loses to Fallon in 5 sets, playoff hopes take hit

Anthony Gentile
agentile@tahoedailytribune.com
South Tahoe outside hitter Jade Child goes up for a kill in the Vikings’ five-set loss to Fallon Thursday night.
Anthony Gentile / Tahoe Daily Tribune |

The South Tahoe volleyball team needed a win Thursday night to stay on track for the postseason — and its comeback fell just short. The Vikings lost to visiting Fallon in five sets 22-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-22, 11-15, a defeat that significantly dims their chances of making the postseason.

“This one hurts a lot — we had chances to win the game and we didn’t take advantage of them,” Vikings head coach Dan McLaughlin said.

After rallying from two sets down, South Tahoe (14-13, 6-6 Northern I-A) couldn’t take the fifth set. Both teams were tied at 11 when the Vikings committed a passing error and a lift on consecutive points — Fallon (7-14, 5-7) then closed out the match with kills from outside hitters Evan Matheson and Alesia Billips.



“We’ve struggled all season long with getting a full roster, and for the first time since the beginning of the season things finally came together for us,” Greenwave coach Patty Sims-Daum said.

In a tight first set, Fallon broke a 20-20 tie with four straight points and jumped in front after converting its third set point.



The Greenwave opened the second set with a 12-3 run, and looked like they would easily take a two-set lead before South Tahoe showed some resolve.

Trailing 20-15, the Vikings reeled off five straight points and tied the set with an ace from outside hitter Jade Child. But after a Fallon timeout, the Greenwave answered with five points in a row to close out the set.

South Tahoe began its rally by taking a close third set — after going ahead 9-8, the Vikings didn’t trail but never led by more than four points. STHS jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the fourth set, and held on the rest of the way to tie the match.

“We played two games of South Tahoe ball — if we play our game, teams can’t beat us,” McLaughlin said. “We were the ones playing fundamentally sound, and then we lost it in game five.”

In the decisive set, South Tahoe took a 4-3 lead with a kill from outside hitter Kendhyl Delacour. But Fallon answered with four straight points, and the Vikings never led after that — their second home loss in three days significantly decreases their postseason chances.

“There’s no such thing as momentum going into the fifth game — it’s the team that executes and does the little things better,” McLaughlin said. “They did little things better than we did — we didn’t cover blocks, we didn’t cover a couple of tips and they did what they had to do to win the game.”

South Tahoe returned to action Friday night at home against Sparks. The Vikings host Fernley next Wednesday at 6 p.m.


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