LAS VEGAS, NEV — The nation's longest high school volleyball win streak stayed intact as No. 14
Harrisburg (Harrisburg, S.D.) swept No. 3
Marymount (Los Angeles, Calif.) on Thursday in their Challenge of Champions match. In the second match of the night, No. 4
Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) fell to
Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nev.) 3-1 as the four teams prepped for this weekend's Durango Fall Classic.
The brainchild of VB Adrenaline founder Darren Tipton, the Challenge of Champions brought the schools together at Bishop Gorman High School in a fun and raucous night of high school volleyball.
After Harrisburg swept No. 3 Marymount 25-21, 26-24, 25-17, the Gaels beat Mater Dei 25-20, 25-23, 23-25, 25-19.
Lindsay Langner of No. 14 Harrisburg reacts during the Tigers' upset sweep of No. 3 Marymount on Thursday at the Challenge of Champions at Bishop Gorman High School. The match was a warmup for this weekend's Durango Fall Classic in Las Vegas. (PHOTO: Jenni Webber)
The second match was boisterous as the two schools also are competing on Friday on the gridiron in the
MaxPreps Game of the Week. The Mater Dei football team and coaches watched the match after practice and the Gaels' cheering section was out in full force.
In the opening match, the Tigers kept their nation-best 84-match win streak alive with the sweep of Marymount.
Gabi Zachariasen led the way for Harrisburg with 14 kills. Her five straight aces in the third set punctuated the victory for the Tigers.
"Everybody contributed in that win. Gabby carried up in big moments, but
everybody else, including
Bergen Stiff in that first set, came up big and did their part," she said.
The Sailor opened the match up 15-8 before Harrisburg made adjustments on its serve receive that flipped not only the set but the match.
"We were getting ourselves out of system a little bit, but when we fixed it they started struggling with our serves and it took them out of system," Harrisburg coach Ronette Costain said. "We knew with the amount of hitters they have that we had to be in system coming off their serve."
Marymount had a chance in the second set to get even with the score tied at 24, but Zachariasen hammered a kill and
Emma Masselink ended the set with a kill.
Zachariasen, a South Dakota commit, put a stranglehold on the third set with five straight aces to turn a 10-7 set into a 15-7 lead.
South Dakota commit Gabi Zacharaisen finished one of her 14 kills in Harrisburg's sweep of Marymouny on Thursday. In the second match of the night, Bishop Gorman beat No. 4 Mater Dei 3-1. (PHOTO: Jenni Webber)
The final match saw the hosts, who sit just outside the MaxPreps Top 25 rankings, use the crowd and the upcoming football game as fuel.
Ayanna Watson was outstanding with 33 kills while
Ellie Prindl added eight kills with no hitting errors.
"I told the kids that the reason you start playing volleyball at 12 years
old is so you can have a match like this against a national team," Bishop Gorman coach Gregg Nunley said after being mobbed by the cheering section. "We pushed them, they pushed back, we pushed them and we just pushed a little harder tonight."
The Gaels were in control much of the first set before Mater Dei trimmed the lead to 23-20 on a
Shewa Adefemiwa kill. But a Watson termination and Mater Dei hitting error ended the threat. The second set was a back-and-forth affair with Matavao knotting the score at 23 before back-to-back Watson kills gave the hosts the 2-0 lead.
The Monarchs cracked the seal but had to hang on to their lead down the stretch as Gorman came back from down 23-17 before falling 25-23 on an Ostovar kill.
But it was all Watson in the fourth as Pitt commit pounded 10 kills in the victory.
"Her athleticism is outstanding for someone to go away and play internationally all summer, come in and get used to high school and the slower pace is amazing," Nunley said of Watson's time with USA Volleyball this summer. "She's a kid who doesn't need coaching, but when I coach her she's locked in."
Harrisburg's Gabi Zacharaisen battles at the net with Marymount's Olivia Penske on Thursday. (PHOTO: Jenni Webber)
