Las Vegas slips past Centennial in boys volleyball opener

On only the second day of the boys volleyball season in Southern Nevada, it would be natural for a team to schedule an opponent that might amount to little more than a scrimmage.

Not perennial contenders Las Vegas High and Centennial.

The Wildcats rallied from a game down, breaking away during a decisive fifth game, to edge the visiting Bulldogs 23-25, 25-23, 24-26, 25-19, 15-8 on Friday night in both teams’ season opener.

“It was a great match,” Las Vegas coach Sue Thurman said. “Centennial is always a top-notch team, and we knew they were going to come in pretty tough. I think we’ve only beat Centennial once in five years, so our boys were really excited about this game.

“We have eight seniors on our roster, so this game was really important for them, for that reason alone.”

Centennial took a 2-1 lead with a 26-24 third-game win, but the Wildcats jumped to a 7-3 lead in the fourth behind a crushing kill from middle hitter James Joseph, who finished with six kills and four blocks.

Later in the fourth, outside hitter Braeden Wilson took over during a critical stretch, crushing four straight kills and making another block to put Las Vegas up 17-11, and the Wildcats rolled to the 25-19 win to force a fifth game.

“After we won that fourth one, we just took over,” Wilson said. “We weren’t looking back after that.”

The senior team captain finished with 26 kills and 21 digs to lead the Wildcats.

Trevor Hardy added 11 kills, and setter Luke Hansen had 47 assists and 12 digs for Las Vegas.

“It’s a team sport,” Wilson said. “We got lots of good passes from our passers, and they were setting me up really good, so I just laid it down.”

Passing was the key to the game, both when the Wildcats were up and down, Thurman said.

“The first game we did not pass well at all,” Thurman said. “Our passers are better than that. That’s what we do here at Vegas: We pass and play defense 75 percent of our practice time.

“They just calmed down, and once we started passing, our senior passers really stepped up.”

Middle hitter Chris Gbelay added seven kills and three digs, including a big hit in the fourth game to give Las Vegas its 23rd point, and then adding two of his team’s first seven points in the final game as the Wildcats jumped to a 7-1 lead.

“He does a great job,” Wilson said. “Every time he jumps in the middle on a good pass, we only get one blocker up. He holds blockers for me, and that’s how I’m able to do a lot of things, and Gbelay does a great job of that, and he put a lot of balls down, too.”

If the two seniors work well together all year, Thurman expects good results from the Wildcats.

“I think (Wilson and Gbelay) are really focused on leading their team to where they need to take them,” she said. “They’re going to step up and not sit back.”

Matt Kurtz led the Bulldogs with 21 kills. Ryan Ramin added 12 kills, and Leo Durken dished out 50 assists for Centennial.