GV's volleyballers get the last laugh

Chaparral won the battle, Green Valley won the war, and both of them seemed to last forever.

The Cowboys on Wednesday night set a precedent this year in Clark County, dealing the Gators their first boys' volleyball setback, a scintillating, five-game marathon victory in the Sunrise Division before a raucous crowd at Chaparral.

Chaparral (18-2) won the match 15-13, 8-15, 16-14, 14-16, 16-14, avenging one of two losses it has this season. The Cowboys also created a tie for first place in the division at 13-1.

But Green Valley (19-1) ultimately gets the last laugh, because the Ga tors win the division (finally) after having Chaparral snapping at their heels for the better part of the last month. In two matches with Chaparral, Green Valley outscored the Cowboys 137-128, so the Gators earn one of two No. 1 seeds for next week's Class 4A zone tournament at Chaparral.

"Our kids were excited. They were pumped," Chaparral coach Jerry Huston said after his team spoiled Green Valley's chances for regular-season perfection. "It was a hard-fought match."

"They took it well," Green Valley coach Caroline Carpenter said of her team. "They've got an overall goal (to win zone) ... of course, we would have liked to have gone undefeated, but we didn't. Now we have to move on to our next season."

David Mirc (20), Aaron Freeman (15) and Kyle Krauss (12) combined for 47 kills for Chaparral, while setter Brandon Barlow had 69 assists.

Green Valley setter Ryan Smith matched Barlow all the way, and he finished with 70 assists. Dave Hyte, Lee Koelliker and Kyle Green each had 12 kills for the Gators, half as many as teammate Mitch Kallick.

Zone seeds were finalized Wednesday. Green Valley and Sunset Division champion Bonanza are the top seeds, with Chaparral and Bishop Gorman seeded second.

The Gaels on Wednesday broke a tie with Cheyenne for second place in Sunset, routing the Desert Shields in three games, 15-9, 17-15, 15-13.

In next Thursday's zone quarterfinals (there is no state tournament), Green Valley plays Cimarron-Memorial, Bonanza faces Rancho, Gorman takes on Basic and Cheyenne hooks up with Chaparral. The zone event is a double-elimination tournament with best-of-3 matches.

In other season finales Wednesday night, Bonanza whipped Western in three games as Jeric Leavitt had 23 assists; Rancho clinched fourth place in Sunrise with a three-game sweep of Vo-Tech; Basic locked up third place in Sunrise, outlasting Las Vegas in four games; Valley won its second match of the season, edging Eldorado in five games; and Clark overcame a two-game deficit and downed Cimarron-Memorial as Scott Pringle fired 21 kills and Jared Jennings 18 more.

Softball

* CLASS 4A ZONE: Silverado, Green Valley, Bonanza and Eldorado are the four teams who will represent this half of the state at next week's state tournament in Carson City. In what order they'll be seeded won't be known until today.

The Skyhawks rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat Green Valley 5-3 on Wednesday afternoon at Sunset Park in the third round of the Class 4A zone tournament. Silverado (30-6) will have to lose twice today to be usurped as the No. 1 seed from this region.

Bonanza (20-8) plays Green Valley (23-7) at 1 this afternoon, with the loser assured of being the state tournament's third seed. Eldorado is the fourth seed for state by virtue of its 14-1 loss to Bonanza on Wednesday.

The Bonanza-Green Valley winner moves opposite Silverado at 3 p.m. today. If the Skyhawks win, the tournament is over. If the Skyhawks lose, another game immediately follows at 5 p.m.

Silverado scored four runs in the fifth inning to beat Green Valley. The knockout was delivered by Julia Yurek, who hit a three-run home run to give the Skyhawks a 4-3 lead. Silverado tacked on an insurance run moments later.

Meka Anderson fashioned a one-hitter for the Skyhawks; two of Green Valley's three runs were unearned.

The biggest question mark is the health of Gators' shortstop Crissy Buck. Buck pulled up lame running out a ground ball in the sixth inning, an apparent quadricep injury that forced her out of the game. She received treatment overnight and was questionable for today.

In advancing to Carson City, Bonanza defeated Basic 2-1 in eight innings on Wednesday, while Eldorado outslugged Cimarron-Memorial 13-7.

In Bonanza's 14-1 rout of the Sundevils, Rachael Milligan was 5-for-5, including a two-run homer, with three RBIs, and Jen Ivy was 4-for-5. Lindsey Johnston supplied three hits and three RBIs for the Bengals, who banged out 21 hits.

Johnston's RBI triple a couple of hours earlier lifted the Bengals to a dramatic win over Basic, which tied the game 1-1 with a run in the seventh.

In Eldorado's win over Cimarron, Becky Warren, Nikki Mosthaff and Jana Bone each had four-hit games, and Patty Scott and Janelle Gervais added three hits apiece in a 21-hit attack.

* ZONE TRACK PRELIMS: A handful of zone records were set Wednesday night at the Class 4A preliminary zone meet at Durango. For the boys, Eldorado's Frank Blalark and Rancho'ss Justin Anderson each broke the 100-meter record with times of 10.4 seconds. The old record was 10.6. Rancho also shattered the 400-meter relay record with a swift 41.0, and tied the 800-meter relay record with a 1:27.5. Cheyenne broke the 1,600-meter relay record with a time of 3:21.46. Clark had set the 400 and 1,600 relay records back in 1981. ... Green Valley's Abby Miller destroyed a 14-year-old record in the 1,600, covering the distance in 5:01.91. The old record was 5:10.8. It was the only zone record broken in the women's prelims.

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