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The Nevada Union volleyball team's long and winding road through the postseason came to end Saturday night in Salinas, as the Miners fell to the host Cowboys 3-0 in the CIF NorCal semifinals.
Salinas (28-4) scored a 25-21, 25-21, 25-14 victory to earn a berth in Tuesday's NorCal championship at top-seeded Oak Ridge (28-11), which defeated Amador Valley 3-1 to advance.
The final leg of NU's six-straight playoff road matches was the longest of all, covering nearly 500 miles round trip. And the 240 miles back home to Grass Valley had to feel especially long after the abrupt ending to the NU season.
“I thought we played pretty well,” said NU co-head coach Bob Rogers. “Salinas looked very good, solid at every position. I don't know if they play that way every night, but they looked very good against us.
“Their libero was great and their defense was very solid. We can't feel bad. We played very well and I thought they were just playing really well.”
The Miners, who finished the season with a 35-11 win-loss record, closed out the season with runner-up finishes in both the Sierra Foothill League and the Sac-Joaquin Section. They also won the Davis Fall Classic and the Super 8 tournaments during the regular season.
Despite seeing the program's section record streak of seven consecutive Division I titles snapped, Rogers considered the season to be a successful one.
“I think it was very good,” he said. “We won two tournaments and beat all the top-ranked teams we played. I think out of the 10 highest regarded teams, we beat nine of them at one time, although we played several of them more than once.
“And they got a long way into the playoffs. (In the section), they finished ahead of 98 out of 100 teams. So that's a good season.”
The only Miner graduating from the roster will be senior Abbie Miraldi, a team captain who gave Rogers and co-head coach Larry Peterson whatever they asked for.
“She's really all-around good player,” Rogers said. “A good defender, a good server, good in serve-receive, good in blocking and hitting.
“She's a great player and we're really going to miss her.”
Rogers said Nevada Union's postseason road matches, consisting of trips to Lodi, Modesto, Napa, Davis, San Francisco and Salinas, certainly made life tougher on the Lady Miners than in their previous playoff runs.
“The tough part is just playing in the other guy's gym, where their used to the lighting, the crowd and seeing the ball come out of the background,” he said. “It certainly made it a lot harder.
“So that makes the run (the Lady Miners) made in the playoffs even more impressive.”
Salinas (28-4) scored a 25-21, 25-21, 25-14 victory to earn a berth in Tuesday's NorCal championship at top-seeded Oak Ridge (28-11), which defeated Amador Valley 3-1 to advance.
The final leg of NU's six-straight playoff road matches was the longest of all, covering nearly 500 miles round trip. And the 240 miles back home to Grass Valley had to feel especially long after the abrupt ending to the NU season.
“I thought we played pretty well,” said NU co-head coach Bob Rogers. “Salinas looked very good, solid at every position. I don't know if they play that way every night, but they looked very good against us.
“Their libero was great and their defense was very solid. We can't feel bad. We played very well and I thought they were just playing really well.”
The Miners, who finished the season with a 35-11 win-loss record, closed out the season with runner-up finishes in both the Sierra Foothill League and the Sac-Joaquin Section. They also won the Davis Fall Classic and the Super 8 tournaments during the regular season.
Despite seeing the program's section record streak of seven consecutive Division I titles snapped, Rogers considered the season to be a successful one.
“I think it was very good,” he said. “We won two tournaments and beat all the top-ranked teams we played. I think out of the 10 highest regarded teams, we beat nine of them at one time, although we played several of them more than once.
“And they got a long way into the playoffs. (In the section), they finished ahead of 98 out of 100 teams. So that's a good season.”
The only Miner graduating from the roster will be senior Abbie Miraldi, a team captain who gave Rogers and co-head coach Larry Peterson whatever they asked for.
“She's really all-around good player,” Rogers said. “A good defender, a good server, good in serve-receive, good in blocking and hitting.
“She's a great player and we're really going to miss her.”
Rogers said Nevada Union's postseason road matches, consisting of trips to Lodi, Modesto, Napa, Davis, San Francisco and Salinas, certainly made life tougher on the Lady Miners than in their previous playoff runs.
“The tough part is just playing in the other guy's gym, where their used to the lighting, the crowd and seeing the ball come out of the background,” he said. “It certainly made it a lot harder.
“So that makes the run (the Lady Miners) made in the playoffs even more impressive.”
