Flying high

Silverado ready to face challenges in tough Sunrise Southeast Division

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Last season the Silverado High School girls volleyball team was one match away from winning the school's first state title in the sport as well putting the wraps on a perfect 21-0 season.

Unfortunately for the Skyhawks and 2004 Southeast Coach of the Year Rachael Blair, that last match on Nov. 13 was in the state semifinals against the top seed from the North, Galena. And to make matters worse, it was played in the Grizzlies' home gym in Reno.

Galena (41-5 overall) eliminated Silverado in three games before moving on to defeat Douglas to win the Class 4A state crown.

This season the Skyhawks return one of the top players in the state in senior outside hitter Samantha Richard and are expected again to make a run at the state championship.

But getting to state -- which will be played in Southern Nevada -- will be a challenge for Silverado, which will have to face the likes of Coronado, Green Valley and Las Vegas in the always-tough Sunrise Region.

Helping third-year coach Blair -- who was away on maternity leave and spelled by assistant Lauren Dunsmore to start the season -- and returning Southeast MVP Richard try to achieve that lofty goal is a very talented supporting cast which includes Jessica Goold and junior setter Jamie Mellies, who has started for the Skyhawks since she was a freshman.

Mellies strutted her stuff in a three-game win on opening night Aug. 30 at Durango, registering 30 assists, seven digs and four blocks in the win over the Trailblazers.

There to make sure that Silverado -- undefeated in its Southeast Division last season -- doesn't have an easy path to the Sunrise league crown this time is an upstart Coronado team (15-6 last year) coached by Jay Renneker.

The Cougars also are intent on winning the state title.The team flew out of the gate to start the season, going 6-0 and beating perennial powerhouses Las Vegas, Palo Verde and Durango, all in three sets, behind the senior trio of middle blockers Sloane Williams (6-5) and Amanda Smith (6-3) and setter Lauren Dickover.

Renneker spoke highly of his tall and talented senior class.

"Amanda and Sloane, our two big girls, they're both really good," he said. "They're Division I athletes. And Amanda's averaging 10 kills a game and Sloane's averaging 11 and each is carrying about six or seven blocks a game."

Renneker said several colleges have already shown interest in both Williams and Smith. Interest in sophomore opposite hitter Jen Singer also has been expressed.

The Cougars coach was extremely pleased with his squad's perfect non-league start.

"They've been playing great. They've been working real hard," Renneker said. "They put a lot of time in the gym and it's showing on the court. They're doing a really great job. The whole month of August, they did three-a-days (practices)."

Renneker said he let his players set their own goals for the season.

"I actually left it up to them this year," he said. "They established them and wrote them down and they want to go undefeated."

Las Vegas High School coach Sue Thurman, whose Wildcats played Coronado over the summer, was impressed with the Cougars' game.

"I was extremely impressed with their back row play against us," Thurman said. "In the past, Coronado has really been known for having big blockers and strong hitters and that's kind of been their M.O. And they had a libero (defensive specialist) that played in the offseason and another little girl that played defense and they dove and hustled and got a lot of balls up and I was really impressed with their defense. So if they can keep their defense and passing going strong, and with their strong offense and big blocks at the net, they really could make a run."

Two dates to circle are Sept. 28, when Coronado hosts the Skyhawks, and Oct. 24 when Silverado hosts the Cougars. If either school wins both of those matches, future opponents best beware.

Usually the talk of the Southeast Division in volleyball, Green Valley (18-4) and coach Erin Hill find themselves in the unusual position of being perceived as underdogs to Silverado and Coronado. But one should never count the perennially strong Gators out.

Last year Hill won her 300th match with Green Valley as the team made it all the way to the Sunrise title tilt. The Gators were beaten by undefeated Silverado in three games, quashing Green Valley's hopes of making it to state.

This season the team returns seniors Kaui Pena and Tess Johnson and junior Lisa Pappas. With two state titles at the 3A level and two more at 4A, no team from Southern Nevada has a more storied tradition in girls volleyball than Green Valley.

With Silverado, Coronado and Green Valley battling for the top three playoff spots in the Southeast, Foothill (14-8), Basic (10-9), Vo-Tech (5-14), Liberty (5-13) and Del Sol (1-20) could be in the unenviable position of fighting each other for the fourth and final spot in the city's toughest division.

Fifth-year coach Renneker said his team enjoys playing in such a competitive league.

"We wouldn't want it any other way. We absolutely love it," he said. "It's real tough. It's the toughest conference every year. We're only in our fifth year and we've made the playoffs every year. And I think you can attribute a lot of that to the fact that we play the toughest teams two, three, four times a year because they reside in our conference."

Foothill, coached by Dee Nuanes, returns seniors Carly Cinkovich and Jessica Mitchell and might have enough talent to capture that final postseason berth.

If the Falcons don't snag it, Basic, coached by Robin Wood, may be in the best position to finish fourth.

In last season's regional playoffs, all four Southeast qualifiers defeated their Northeast counterparts in the opening round of play with Las Vegas becoming the only school to win a game in the quarterfinals.

Thurman's Las Vegas team, as usual, appears to be the team to beat again in the Northeast Division. The Wildcats went 15-3 last year before being bounced from the postseason in that quarterfinal match against Foothill.

Thurman, who was named the Northeast Coach of the Year and whose boys team captured the state title this past spring, returns four starters this season, including seniors Megan Webb, the 2004 Northeast MVP, Shannon Todd and Ti'ona Francis.

Thurman couldn't say enough about her go-to girls.

"Meagan's absolutely huge to our success," she said. "She's a setter and every time the ball comes over the net, 90 percent of the time it's going to touch her hands in one of our contacts. And with her court experience -- she's started since her freshman year and been around the sport since she's been in fifth grade -- we really count on her to make some good decisions and make some big plays for us.

"And Shannon is our team leader. She is very vocal on the court, she is extremely positive with all her teammates and she really kind of lifts the team up every time we kind of start to lose track. And she sets her own example of hustling and working hard on the court at all times and does her best to bring the level of the team's play up."

Thurman said she is counting heavily on the play of some of her underclassmen in hopes of winning the first girls state volleyball title for one of the oldest high schools in the valley.

"We have three sophomores -- Cassie Lindsay, Chenoa Rossi and Jennifer Glidden -- coming in that we really hope will make an impact on our team," she said. "So we're really hoping to do well, obviously, but we also want to get some of these younger kids some court time as well. We're kind of excited to see them coming along as they are."

One of two teams Thurman thought might pose a real challenge to her Wildcats in the Northeast this season was Eldorado (14-4), coached by Susan Romero.

Last year, the Sundevils lost to Coronado in the playoffs, but Eldorado returns the nucleus of its team and may have a shot at the league crown.

"I really think there are some teams in our conference this year that have been really working ... that have a lot of players that have been around the program for a while," Thurman said. "For example, I think Eldorado has some players that have been playing since their freshman year and I think they're going to be pretty strong this year. They might not be one of the top teams in the city, but they're definitely going to surprise and shock some teams this year."

Sundevils Caitlin Brown, Shaquitta Toalepai, Christina Macke and Sarah Childs hope to prove Thurman right.

Another team on the radar is Rancho (7-13), coached by Steve Ladoucuer. The Rams junior varsity team went 18-1 last year and the bulk of that team has now moved up to varsity.

"Rancho had a really good JV team last year," Thurman said. "And they have some really good athletes. Our conference, it seems year after year, we kind of tend to be the weakest conference but I think that our level of play over here is picking up and I don't think we will be or should be as overlooked as we've been in the past perhaps. I really think both Eldorado and Rancho are going to be tough. I can tell you we are definitely going to be working hard in those matches."

Evidence that Rancho -- which was the No. 4 seed from the league in the playoffs in 2004 -- is for real came with a come-from-behind, five-game win over Shadow Ridge on opening night, and in a game they won against Coronado -- the only team in the city to win a game from the Cougars at press time in their first six matches.

Like the Southeast, the battle for the Northwest's fourth playoff berth will probably come down to battle between an improved Valley (11-7) team, Chaparral (4-16), Desert Pines (3-16) and Canyon Springs (0-19).

Logic dictates that the Vikings, led by seniors Valerie Ajuziem, Brittany Faber and Safaye Kadir, with advantages in athleticism and experience over the other contenders, should garner that playoff spot. And although the two divisions in the Sunrise appear as competitive as they have ever been, no one would be surprised if the same eight teams that qualified for the playoffs did so again this time around.

Thurman said she was impressed with the play of the two big teams from upstate that met for last year's championship, Galena and Douglas, whom she saw play last month at the 15th annual United States Specialty Sports Association-Las Vegas High School Invitational tournament, won by Pleasant Grove, Utah.

"Douglas looked extremely strong," she said. "They have some really big hitters. They're solid all the way around. Galena did play up until the semifinals. I would say they were perhaps not as strong as last year, but I still definitely think they're a very strong team."

Coronado coach Renneker said he knows who his players need to worry about.

"I told them they've got to watch out for Silverado, Green Valley, Douglas and Galena," he said.

Both regional tournaments in Southern Nevada will be held Nov. 1-4 with the state championships following on Nov. 11-12. All games are scheduled to be played at Canyon Springs High School in North Las Vegas.