Fallon volleyball drops heartbreaker, Oasis wins 1st match

In their first home match of the season, the Lady Wave nearly pulled off an upset and over its cross-valley rival, no less.

Needing to win one more game (2-1) to take the match, Fallon lost the fourth to set up the fifth and deciding game against Fernley, which continued its rally to pull out the league win. The Vaqueros won 24-26, 25-16, 16-25, 26-24 and 15-10 on Wednesday at the Elmo Dericco Gym.

Fallon, which won the season-opening Yerington tournament two weeks ago, travels to Lowry today before returning to take on North Valleys on Friday at home.

First-year coach Taylor deBraga said the team played too defensive late in the match but overall, she was pleased with Fallon’s effort against its rival.

“We played not to lose. We needed that killer instinct,” she said. “We played scared and we need to work on that.”

Wednesday’s match against Fernley wasn’t like the previous meetings. Points were contested and many rallies lasted for more than a minute. Senior Karlee Hitchcock led Fallon with seven kills and senior Ariana Magana had 24 digs.

“Our communication on the court is a lot better, we found their holes and made them work for their tips,” deBraga added.

Sophomore Willow Jacobson led Fernley at the net with a 13-kill performance and junior Aschlynn Roemer had seven and senior Celeste Condie added six. Condie led the team in blocks with three solos and three assists and senior Jaiden Sullivan led in aces with two. Senior Katelyn Bunyard was a digging machine, tallying 37, and fellow senior Natalie Stewart had 24 assists.

“We worked really well together for the most part,” Fernley coach Diane Chapin said. “We got better as the match progressed. We had a lot of deep hits and unforced errors.”

Oasis Academy wins 1st match of the season

Competing in its first season when playoffs are now a possibility, the Oasis Academy volleyball team won its first match of the year, taking down Pyramid Lake in last weekend’s North Tahoe tournament.

The Bighorns host Sierra Lutheran on Wednesday the city-county gym.

Kynja Woods, juniors Sadie O’Flaherty and Sequoya Casey and sophomore Maiya Swan each recorded two kills in the Bighorns’ 25-4, 25-11 win over Pyramid Lake on Saturday. O’Flaherty was strong from the service line with six aces and freshman Madeline Wille led the team with five assists and Swan added three.

Oasis Academy tied Mira Loma (Sacramento, Calif.), 1-1 (25-21, 15-25), and lost to Elko (17-25, 15-25) and North Tahoe (16-25, 14-25) in straight sets at the Laker Invitational.

In its split with the Sacramento school, O’Flaherty led a balanced attack – Oasis had 15 kills – with five and senior Kynja Woods had four. Swan, a lefty led the team in aces with three and tied a team-high with six assists. Willie also had six assists.

Playing Elko from the 3A, O’Flaherty led the team with seven kills, Swan had two aces and three block assists, and Casey added six assists. In the final match of the tournament against North Tahoe, a 2A school, sophomore Elisabeth Bird led the team with four kills and Willie had four assists.