Unbeaten Shadow Ridge sweeps Bonanza in boys volleyball

After his team swept Bonanza on Friday night, Shadow Ridge boys volleyball coach Christian Augustin had nothing but praise for his opposing coach.

He is, after all, a man who helped Augustin win a national championship.

“Bonanza is always a competitive team,” Augustin said. “Their coach (Erik Davis) is such an extraordinary coach. We just wanted to come in here and play a really good solid game, and I think our guys did.”

Augustin and Davis co-coached the 18-and-under Las Vegas Volleyball club that took the gold medal in the 2008 Junior Olympics, the first team from Nevada to accomplish the feat.

Both coaches brought gold-medal form back to their schools as Bonanza and Shadow Ridge entered Friday’s match undefeated.

The Mustangs defeated the Bengals 25-18, 27-25, 25-12 to improve to 10-0. Bonanza fell to 8-1.

“We really work well together as co-coaches,” Davis said. “When we’re not co-coaches, apparently he kicks my butt.”

Bonanza led the second game 21-17, but Shadow Ridge scored four consecutive points to negate the lead.

“We had to respond in Game 2,” Augustin said. “And that’s tough to have to respond to that, especially in a tight game with a lot of people in the stands. But their response was good.”

Shadow Ridge’s Ryan Nolan picked up a kill to take the second game. He finished with 20 kills.

The third game never was in doubt, as Shadow Ridge reeled off an 11-0 run to take control.

The results were disheartening, but not unexpected, for Davis.

“(Shadow Ridge) played in the playoffs against us, and you see a lot of these guys that have been starters last year,” Davis said. “We lost six of our seven starters from last year’s rotation. That was the difference tonight.”

But Davis said that his experience with Augustin helped his team keep the game close.

“I tried to get inside of his head a little bit more,” Davis said. “I tried to figure out what he’s going to bring at us and then tried to stop it.
“Obviously we weren’t able to do that today. But I did have him pinned; I knew what he was going to do just because I know him so well.”

Davis didn’t only know Shadow Ridge’s coach well, he knew its players. Two of the Mustangs’ starters, Nolan and libero Jeff Elmer, were members of Davis’ Junior Olympics squad.

Elmer finished with 17 digs.