Las Vegas rallies past Rancho, clinches Northeast League boys volleyball title

Las Vegas High boys volleyball coach Sue Thurman said she wanted Braeden Wilson to dig the ball when the Wildcats outlasted Rancho in the teams’ first meeting, 3-2.

In Tuesday’s home rematch, the senior outside hitter focused on spiking the ball.

Wilson registered 20 kills Tuesday as the host Wildcats rallied from a late Game 1 surge by Rancho to defeat the Rams 25-27, 25-22, 25-13, 25-11 and clinch the Northeast League championship.

“It feels great to come out on top of our division and get us going in the right direction for the playoffs,” Wilson said. “It feels really good to get the win today.”

Las Vegas expected a close match after fighting off multiple rallies from the Rams in the first match.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Wilson said. “Rancho is a really improved program; they came out to play us. And we were able to answer them winning that first game, then come back and get the next three.

“We knew it was going to be a fight.”

The first meeting also helped the Wildcats focus on the rematch.

“Our team as a whole has been focused very hard for the last few weeks,” Thurman said. “We knew Rancho was going to come in tough. They played us tough the first time.”

Luke Hansen dished out 36 assists for Las Vegas, and Chris Gbelay and James Joseph added five blocks each as the Wildcats overcame a charging Rams squad in the first game that took an 8-3 lead and then rallied for five of the final seven points to claim the first game.

Rancho middle blocker David Silva had five of his nine kills in the first game, and Kevin Plascencia added three kills and two aces on his way to 10 kills overall.

“We were kind of disappointed that we let them get back in that first game, but we knew we could come back,” Wilson said. “We’re a fighting team; we weren’t going to let that get to us.”

Thurman said the crowd support helped Las Vegas storm to a 7-2 lead in the second game.

“Our fans were huge for us,” Thurman said. “I think our fans gave our team a lot of energy and momentum that they carried with them throughout the match.

“That was wonderful, to have them all here. It was a very high-energy atmosphere.”

Rancho forced five ties in Game 2 but took the lead only once after a hard kill by Antonio Boucher to go up 18-17. But a spike by Trevor Hardy in the next set started a 7-0 run for Las Vegas, and the Wildcats finished the rally to even the match and take control.

Wilson notched six kills in the third game and provided a dramatic leap from the back row to lay down the winning kill in Game 4.

Boucher finished with 10 kills, four blocks and two aces. Kamran Baig tallied 32 assists for the Rams.