The Cougars won a regular season tournament for the first time ever this weekend.
Spanish Springs went to the 13th Annual Yerington Memorial Tournament and took first (out of 24 teams) winning all
eight matches it played. The Cougars didn’t even drop a single set. Each match was a best-of-three.
“It was good,” Spanish Springs coach Frank Sandomenico said. “We wanted to get two things out of the tournament. One, we wanted to play instead of practice. And two, we wanted to play teams we’re not going to see again … It was just nice to play someone different. Winning was the best part.”
The tournament was flush with smaller schools which allowed Sandomenico to give his bench plenty of playing time. In a few matches, some of his five strong seniors never saw the floor.
Spanish Springs topped host Yerington (25-19, 25-14) in the title game on Saturday evening. It had to beat Mammoth (25-8, 25-13) and Lowry (25-9, 25-9) in bracket play to get to the match.
In pool play on Saturday, the Cougs bested Fernley (25-20, 25-13) and Calvary Chapel (25-18, 25-10).
On Friday, Sandomenico’s bunch swept Lovelock (25-10, 25-17), South Tahoe (25-13, 25-8) and Silver Stage (25-16, 25-9).
The Cougars (8-0, 0-0) will open 4A North play on Thursday at Hug then participate in the High Sierra Invitational – which has a substantially more challenging field – on Friday and Saturday.
Sparks goes 1-6 at Yerington Memorial
The Railroaders also made the trip to Yerington this weekend, but didn’t have nearly the same results. Sparks went 1-6 at the tournament, good for 18th in the 24-team field.
After going 0-5 in pool play, Sparks picked up its first win of the season in bracket play on Saturday. The Railroaders topped Coleville (25-14, 25-19) then fell to Sierra Lutheran (25-20, 25-16) to end their run.
Earlier on Saturday, in pool play, Sparks lost to the Yerington JV squad (25-19, 25-10) then South Tahoe (25-12, 25-15).
On Friday, Sparks was bested by Bishop Union (25-13, 25-17), Fernley (25-13, 25-17) and Sierra Lutheran (25-17, 25-18).
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