DON McDERMOTT MORE COLUMNS DON McDERMOTT / PVT The Pahrump Valley High School girls golf team will compete in the Nevada Class 4-A State tournament Monday and Tuesday at Hidden Valley Country Club in Reno. On the team, coached by Julie Floyd, left, are Ashley Keller, Shyanne Dixon, Meghan Morales, Emilynne Biggs and Brittani Dinicola, along with Sierra Fitzgibbons (who had a conflict and could not practice Monday at Mountain Falls, the Lady Trojans? home course). Advertisement

Let's do a little bragging.

The Pahrump Valley High School girls' golf team, in its first season in Class 4-A, qualified for the Nevada State Championships, to be contested Monday and Tuesday at Hidden Valley Country Club in Reno.

It's a big deal, since few people -- especially those living in Las Vegas -- gave any of PVHS fall sports teams much chance to advance that far in any sport. The Trojans are competing in football, boys soccer, cross country, volleyball and girls golf in Class 4-A; the girls soccer team, because of the legal shenanigans of a Henderson attorney/parent, is playing in the Southern 3-A League this fall.

That coach Julie Floyd's team finished second in the Sunset regionals to earn one of the team berths in the Reno finals wasn't really that much of a surprise to people familiar with the program.

Ever since girls golf began in the mid-1980s, Pahrump Valley's girls have been up against it in scheduling opponents, so have had to work hard to not only succeed, but earn respect. For the first few years of the program's existence, the Lady Trojans played Las Vegas 3-A (now 4-A) rivals. It wasn't until the late 1990s that girls teams emerged in Mesquite (Virgin Valley) and Overton (Moapa Valley) and Faith Lutheran, in northwest Las Vegas, started building what is one of the best private school athletics program in Nevada.

In 1997, the Lady Trojans won their first state golf title, playing on their own course, the Calvada Valley Golf & Country Club (now the closed (for how long?) Willow Creek course.)

The Trojans won four of the last six state 3-A championships, in 2002 and three straight (2005, 2006, 2007). When the PV girls moved to 4-A, they were placed in the Sunset Region Southwest Division, which includes Bishop Gorman, which has won four of the last five state titles and has a good shot to make it four of five.

Coach Floyd's teams qualified for state with four underclassmen starters -- freshman Emilynne Biggs, junior Brittani DiNicola and sophomores Shyanne Dixon and Sierra Fitzgibbons -- and two seniors, Ashley Keller and Meghan Morales. Keller started all three seasons when PVHS won state 3-A titles.

At the regionals, played Tuesday at Silverstone Golf Club in Las Vegas, Keller had 91, Morales 100, Fitzgibbons 101, Biggs 107, Dixon 108 and DiNicola 111. With four scores counting, PV had 399, well off the winning pace of Gorman's 354. The top two individuals were Lady Gaels; medalist Nichole Corpus-Massucci had 73, while Nicholette Rivera had 81.

Palo Verde, out of the Northwest Division, was third with 402, despite an 83 by Sonja Pejak.

Defending champion Silverado and Coronado appear to be the biggest threats to the Gaels. Both had 351 totals in the Sunrise regionals. Silverado's Tameka Kemps was medalist with 79 (in a playoff with Coronado's Melanie Chambers).

"We know what our chances are of winning," said Floyd, during a practice session at Mountain Falls Wednesday. "But we know that going to state will be a great experience for our team, especially the younger girls."

And while we are giving shoutouts to PV athletes, let's hear a big hurrah for the Lady Trojans volleyball team. Monday, PVHS defeated Durango, the 2007 state 4-A runnerup, 3-1 in a league match. That was a major statement by coach Jill Harris and her team. That the Trojans lost 3-0 at Sierra Vista Wednesday could be totally understood, considering how much effort, both physically and emotionally, they put into the match Monday.

Also, give a nod of appreciation for the hard work and combativeness of PVHS's boys soccer team. The Trojans are taking the game to the opposition; when they have more experience playing against 4-A-calibre rivals, those one- and two-goal losses will be less frequent.

Now...go out and root for the Trojans' football team tonight. Talk about a team caught in a perfect storm (little experience vs. strong opponents) ... coach Leo Verzilli's squad is facing that dilemma ...