Lady Vandals Finish League Play Unbeaten After Owyhee Win

The Lady Vandals (24-4, 8-0) finished the league season last week and prepare now for the 1A North regional tournament which they will host Nov. 2-3.

The girls concluded the regular season with a 3-0 win at Owyhee last week. Scores were 26-24, 25-16, 25-13.

A bit closer in the first game. More widespread in the final two.

The girls had 33 kills in the match with Alia Minoletti making 10 of them, followed by Mikala Talbot with seven. Savannah Sanders and Shauna Brown both recorded nine digs apiece.

Looking ahead to the regional tournament, Coach Katie Benson said, “It will be nice for our girls to not have to travel and be away from home during the regional tournament, to stay home and sleep in their own beds. But it will be tough competition there and we’re in high hopes that we will be able to move on to the state playoffs.”

Virginia City (17-6), the top team in the west, comes in riding a 13-match win streak, barring any unexpected loss to fourth place Pyramid Lake in their final match this Friday.

Teams from the east league are expected to be Eureka, Wells and Owyhee. Jackpot and Carlin played Oct. 25 to determine the No. 4 seed.

Should the Lady Muckers and the Lady Vandals meet in the regional finals it would be their second meeting of the year. Virginia City beat Eureka 3-0 in non-league play Sept. 29 in Eureka.

The top two teams out of the regional tournament will advance to the state tournament Nov. 9-10 in Reno. The semifinals will be Nov.9 at Reed High School, but switching Nov. 10 for the finals at Bishop Manogue High School where all classifications will have their finals.

Eureka has not been to the state tournament final four since 2013.

In the south regional, the South and Central leagues face each other Nov. 2-3 at Tonopah.

Pahranagat Valley is the five-time southern regional tournament champion and two-time defending state champion.

The expected first round pairings, if all things remain equal, would match Pahranagat Valley vs. Round Mountain, Liberty Baptist vs. Coleville, Green Valley Christian vs. Tonopah, and Beatty vs. Smith Valley.