With the two best teams in the region on the floor Saturday night in the Northern 4A Regional Volleyball championship, two things became readily apparent.
One squad would have to end up losing the match, and it was going to be a true shame when it did.
As it turned out, it was Douglas who came up just short in possibly the best match of the season as Reno claimed the Northern 4A crown and a berth in next week's state tournament with a 25-18, 23-25, 21-25, 25-19, 15-12 win at Galena High School.
The fifth game was as good a summary of the entire match as any, as Reno jumped out to a 5-1 lead, forcing a Douglas timeout.
The Tigers came back and ran off five consecutive points to take a 6-5 lead. The two teams then battled the next 12 points evenly, changing leads twice and tying it up four times during that stretch alone.
After Megan Mitchell set Jourdan Burke up for her second consecutive kill, putting Douglas up 12-11, Reno called a final timeout and rattled off the next four points for the win.
Reno's Shelby Zaldain had 15 kills to lead the Huskies and Douglas couldn't overcome its worst serving night of the season with 17 service errors, many of which came at crucial points in the match.
The match opened with the same even play that defined the entire night before the Huskies closed out with an 11-4 run.
Douglas came right back and rode a 9-0 run through the middle of the second to take a 15-8 lead. Reno answered with a 7-2 run to draw within two at 17-15, and later tied it at 19. The two squads pushed the score to a tie at 22-all before Mitchell, Jessica Waggoner and Burke each recorded a kill to pick up the win.
Douglas took control late in the third and rode out a 25-21 lead but Reno captured the momentum back in the fourth by building a 16-10 lead.
The Tigers chipped away at that, but couldn't get any closer than four through the rest of the game, which set up the decisive fifth,
Waggoner finished with 16 kills, Burke had 13 and Taryn Williams had 12 for the Tigers. Mitchell finished the match with 44 assists.
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