Fallon volleyball opens with win at Sparks

The Churchill County High School volleyball team overcame early jitters that led to a slow start to sweep Sparks in three sets in its season opener last Wednesday.

A dominant service performance from Kalaya Downs and strong play at the net by Audrey Fruzza helped the Greenwave recover from their slow start.

Coach Tristin Johnson praised her team’s resilience in turning things around, winning 25-21, 25-9, 25-11. 

                                                                   Fallon’s Kalaya Downs sets the ball while her teammates prepare to attack. Photo by Robert Perea.

“They were a little nervous, which is fine, but they pushed through and that’s the thing,” Johnson said. “You’ve got to be able to handle a little bit of pressure.”

After Sparks opened the match with a 7-3 lead in the first set, the Greenwave scored seven consecutive points and 17 of the next 21 to take a 20-11 lead.

Then with Kalaya Downs serving to open the second set, the Greenwave scored the first 13 points of the second set. After Sparks scored two points, Fallon scored six in a row to lead 19-2.

Fallon also had 9-0 and 6-0 runs in the third set.

“If we serve and pass and play good defense, we’re going to be all right, and then we did a really good job of keeping our swings in the court,” Johnson said. “We didn’t have to kill it super hard, but they were good ball placement and we hit most of our balls in, and most of them were kills.”

The Greenwave have 10 seniors on the roster, although only eight players were available for the first match. Johnson said the team will only get stronger once everyone returns to action.

“We’ve got lots of different lineups we’re going to try, so once we get everybody back, we just get more options, and that’s a good problem to have,” she said. “The new players are getting more experience, and then we’ll start to figure out what exactly is our best lineup.”

The Greenwave is scheduled to play at 6 p.m. at Wooster this Thursday, then next Thursday at South Tahoe. They are also scheduled to play in the High Sierra Volleyball Invitational at the Swift Sportsdome in Reno Sept. 4-5, where they are guaranteed six matches in a best-of-3 format that includes pool play followed by bracket play.

Photo to the left: Fallon’s Sutton Yost tips a free ball over the net. Photo by Robert Perea