Hornets spike Round Mountain; ready for playoffs

The Beatty volleyball team is in a good position to overtake Indian Springs as the third place team in the division. Regardless of what happens, the Hornets are playoff bound.

The Hornets soundly beat Round Mountain (2-9 overall, 1-5 Division IV Southern) in three sets last week, 25-14, 25-16, 25-17. Round Mountain is out of playoff contention. Beatty will play Tonopah (6-1-2-4), who could squeak into the six-seed playoff picture tonight.

The girls beat the Muckers in a practice game last week in three sets.

If Beatty (10-4, 4-2) wins tonight and then beats Indian Springs (7-5, 5-2) in the last game next week on Thursday then they should capture third place.

Hornets coach Steve Sullivan was glad that their last game was Indian Springs.

"If we want third place to guarantee a rematch with Sandy Valley we have to make sure we win both of these next games," he said. "I am actually really glad we have Indian Springs as our last game because they are a tough team, and that should help get us in the right mindset for playoffs."

Sullivan said he is working with his team to get rid of their "inconsistencies".

He said his team had 12 service errors, 15 offensive errors and 16 defensive errors.

"This is pretty high for us," he said. "We found ourselves getting sucked up in the back row and standing flat-footed quite a few times. Even though we had 12 service errors, we also had Claudia Granados with 12 aces."

The girls had a non-league game on Tuesday against Mountain View, which they also won 25-10, 25-14, 25-16.

Sullivan said his team was still sloppy against that team too and said it might have been because they didn't have school on Monday.

"Well we kept our heads but we definitely did not minimize errors," Sullivan said. "We finished with 14 service errors, 13 offensive errors, 13 defensives errors. However, I'm still very confident moving forward with these girls."

As the playoffs approach, Sullivan has a lot of confidence in his girls.

"I have told them several times they can beat anybody in our division and I think, as time has moved on, they are starting to believe that more and more," the coach said.

Tonight, Beatty will be honoring seniors at the game.

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com. Follow @vernheepvt on Twitter.