The North Tahoe volleyball team powered out of the regular season with league wins this past Thursday and Friday to secure a No. 3 playoff seed.

The Lakers defeated Silver Stage in straight sets on the road Thursday, 25-22, 25-13, 25-17. They set down visiting Pershing County, a No. 4 playoff seed, in four sets on senior farewell the following day, 25-12, 22-25, 25-11, 26-24.

North Tahoe will carry a 9-3 league record (17-4 overall) into the Northern Division III regional championship at Yerington this Saturday. The third seed comes with a date against second-seeded Incline (10-2) in the semifinal round at 1:45 p.m. The rival Lakers and Highlanders split their two regular-season matches.

---

---

Top-seeded Yerington (11-1), whose only league loss came against Incline, will face Pershing County (6-6) in the other semifinal match at noon. The semifinal winners will contend for the regional championship and top state seed on Saturday at 4 p.m. The top two teams from the tournament advance to state, which will be held in Henderson on Nov. 13-14.

Against the Nighthawks, North Tahoe senior Rikki Partain tallied seven kills, four service aces and 11 digs, Sherene Clegg finished with three blocks and four kills, and Jordan Briggs had six kills and nine digs. Senior setter Jamie Dodge posted 11 assists and Tilley Gibeaut had eight, and libero Helana Kearns had 12 serve returns. Kearns, Briggs and Dodge also contributed two aces apiece.

---

---

With tired legs from the previous night’s match — especially given a roster of only seven players — the Lakers dropped the second set against the Mustangs and had to dig deep to come back from a 23-18 deficit in the fourth set.

When it was all said and done, Clegg had smashed 17 kills, while Briggs finished with nine kills, two blocks and 16 serve returns, Partain had four aces, 18 digs and 16 serve returns, and Gibeaut had eight kills, 18 digs and 14 serve returns. Kearns added 28 digs, and Dodge had 12 digs and 35 assists.

Find a regional playoff bracket here.