Trojans beat up on Sunrise Mountain for a league victory

The Pahrump Valley High School volleyball team rolled over its latest victim, the Sunrise Mountain Miners, to remain undefeated in league play (9-15 overall, 5-0 Sunset League).

The Trojans defeated the Miners (3-15, 2-3) in three sets, 25-12, 25-19 and 25-17.

“It was the way I expected it to go,” coach Jill Harris said. “I would have liked to not have as many missed serves in the second game, and it wasn’t our best match. I want our team to work on short sets. For the most part, our passing was decent tonight, and we had a lot of opportunities to do that.”

Pahrump Valley is winning the games it needs to win and that is the league games and they are doing it because the team is improving with each match they play.

“My players are growing in experience,” Harris said. “If you had seen freshman Nicky Velazquez at the first game, she just spun circles and now she is moving way better. And all my players are gaining in confidence. My team is improving. If you look at that first game, it is night and day. We are not the same team.”

The coach said her team has come a long way since that first game, and according to the coach, this is why the team is winning league games.

The leaders of this young team

The team is also winning due to strong leadership on the court.

“Stobbe has the most experience; she is the captain of the team and she runs the plays,” Harris said. “There are other leaders on the floor. Maddie Hansen, the libero, is sick tonight. Kylie is pretty good at blocking. Her confidence has changed so much and she is just a sophomore. I start two sophomores and two freshmen. She is growing and she had some good blocks.”

In addition to good leadership on the court, the coach has noticed that play calling and basic communication has been improving with each game. Communication definitely played a role in the win against Sunrise Mountain.

During the game, the team’s play calling was smooth and the Trojans were hardly out of position.

Harris said that communication was something that she and her team had been working on.

“We have a lot of mixed team games in practice so that the teams are even and that has improved our communication a lot.” the coach said. “You would hear Maddie in the back row telling them to hit it. We work the communication a lot in practice.”

The Trojans’ remaining games

The biggest league game for the Trojans will be against Cheyenne, who has the same league record (5-0) and is in first place.

The first game the Trojans lost to Cheyenne in non-league play at the Las Vegas Invitational (2-1) and then they tied them recently at the Boulder City Invitational (1-1). The first league meeting was canceled and postponed until Oct. 23 and that will be at home at 6 p.m. The Trojans will travel to face Cheyenne before then on Oct. 18.

Before the team plays Cheyenne, they will have to beat a good Mojave team (7-8, 3-2) first on the road. That game was Thursday night.

“Mojave is a much more competitive team than Sunrise,” the coach said. “We beat Mojave three sets to zero but they are a better team than that and I was surprised for I thought it would be closer. But I still plan on beating them because we are also a good team.”

The next home game will be at 6 p.m. on Oct. 16 where the Trojans play Desert Pines (1-10, 0-5).

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com