Hornets down last 8 opponents, head into playoffs
The Beatty High School volleyball team has won its last two matches, starting with a sweep of Round Mountain, 25-12, 25-14, 25-11 for homecoming week and ending with a win against fourth-place Liberty Baptist, 25-20, 25-10, 25-20.
Despite being in a rebuilding year, Hornets coach Steve Sullivan finds his team once again going to the regional playoffs. The team finishes up the season with first-place undefeated Pahranagat Valley.
Playoffs start next week for Beatty (8-6 overall, 6-1 Class 1A Southern) on Nov. 1. Tonopah (19-6-1, 6-1) should finish as the second-seed team, which means they have a bye and will play at home at 1:45 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4. The top six teams make it to the playoffs in the Class 1A Southern.
Beatty will host the sixth-seed team, which should be Indian Springs (4-7, 2-5) at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
Sullivan said against Round Mountain the girls gave a great all-around team effort.
“We had minimal service errors, which allowed us to play it out and take control of the sets,” the coach said. “Round Mountain had some big swingers but they seemed off and struggled with keeping their hits in the court. This allowed our defense to be focused more on the short hits and tips over the net. So the match allowed us to work to improve our defensive positioning and transitioning that into offense.”
With the regular season ending on Thursday against Alamo, Sullivan wants his team to work on the small things.
“Moving forward, we need to keep improving in that area along with minimizing service errors as well as our net play,” the coach said.
Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com
