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SUNRISE VOLLEY: Las Vegas sweeps Silverado behind outside hitter Brandon Kampshoff

Las Vegas High outside hitter Brandon Kampshoff doesn’t want his senior volleyball season to end until his team captures its ultimate goal: a state championship.

Kampshoff made sure the Wildcats’ chances of reaching that goal stayed alive by posting 14 kills, four aces and eight digs in a 25-7, 25-16, 25-16 win over visiting Silverado in the Sunrise Region quarterfinals on Tuesday.

While Kampshoff constantly stepped up with a key kill or block whenever the Skyhawks attempted to rally, his energy also played a key part in helping the Wildcats — the top seed from the Northeast League — advance to the second round.

“It’s the playoffs. I’m a senior, it’s my last year in high school, so it’s kind of like I’ve got to give it my all if I want to win region and state,” Kampshoff said. “I mean, that’s what it takes to win the region championship and the state championship. Once we’ve reached that, then we’ve succeeded.”

Las Vegas (19-8) will face defending state champion Green Valley (23-12) in a semifinal at 5 p.m. Thursday at Coronado High. The Gators are the No. 2 seed from the Southeast League.

Kyle Monton had 11 digs and four aces, Shaun Kampshoff added 14 assists and five kills, and Romeo Gray notched six kills to help the Wildcats.

“They did their job,” Las Vegas coach Justin Graham said. “That’s the expectation we’ve had for forever now. We needed to win a playoff game, so they came out and did their job and executed very well.”

Las Vegas took control of the match early when Foster Palo’s kill in the first set provided a spark that sent the Wildcats on a 4-0 run to take a 7-3 lead. Silverado never challenged again, and Las Vegas closed out the opening set on a Brandon Kampshoff kill.

“We played really well,” Brandon Kampshoff said. “From the start of the game, we really brought all that energy on the court and that’s why we beat Silverado in three. They weren’t ready for it and we were.”

In the second set, the Skyhawks pulled within 18-15. But Brandon Kampshoff recorded two kills to extend the lead and the Wildcats never looked back.

With Las Vegas holding onto a 12-10 lead in the third set, Shaun Kampshoff and Gray teamed up on a double block that sparked the Wildcats to victory.

Along the way, the Wildcats made some errors to give the Skyhawks small glimmers of hope. Graham said he hopes to eliminate those issues before Thursday’s game.

“With every high school team, it’s just consistency and ball control, and staying within our system,” he said. “You know, all that kind of same stuff that every coach talks about every year. We know that we’ve got a really good team coming up Thursday, and we’re going to have to step our game up and make sure we’re playing really well.”

Steckel had eight assists and seven digs to lead Silverado. Dillon Marshall had five digs, and Sean Borla had two kills for the Skyhawks (17-18).

Green Valley 3, Valley 0 — At Las Vegas, James Reed had 19 kills, eight digs and six aces to lead the Gators to a 25-12, 25-14, 25-8 win over the Vikings in a Sunrise Region quarterfinal.

Tanner Webb added seven blocks, and Brian Burkemeyer had 25 assists and three kills for Green Valley.

Isaac Frazier had seven kills, and Noah Sutton had six kills for Valley (9-23).

Coronado 3, Eldorado 0 — At Coronado, Ryan Garlick had eight kills, six aces and three digs as the Cougars rolled to a 25-8, 25-9, 25-15 sweep of the Sundevils in a Sunrise Region quarterfinal.

Ben Bloss added nine kills and two digs, and Matt Wilson had 25 assists and four aces for Coronado (26-14), which will host Foothill (17-19) in a semifinal at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Tim Lawson had six assists and two digs, and Luciano Ronquillo added nine digs for Eldorado (7-12).

Foothill 3, Rancho 0 — At Coronado, Caleb Stearman had 28 assists, nine digs, six blocks and three kills to help the Falcons to a 25-16, 25-14, 25-13 sweep of the Rams in a Sunrise Region quarterfinal.

Richard Reid added 12 kills, 10 digs and two blocks, and Tanner Lester had 10 kills, three blocks and two aces for Foothill, which got 17 digs from Troy Bell.

Daniel Grantham had four kills and seven digs, and Tiger Tokunaga added four kills and five digs for Rancho (12-17).

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