HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Tasha Humbert, 12, serves for the Pahrump Valley junior varsity volleyball team, in the Lady Trojans Invitational tournament last weekend, in the high school gym. Advertisement

After a 1-2 start on Friday, the Pahrump Valley Lady Trojans won five of six matches Saturday to win the Copper Division title in the Las Vegas Invitational Volleyball tournament Saturday.

The Jill Harris-coached team, playing at Green Valley High School Saturday, defeated Henderson Foothill 25-10, 25-13; Las Vegas Rancho 25-11, 27-25 and Henderson Basic 25-14, 26-28, 15-8 to win the Copper Division title and finish 6-3 in the two-day volleyball marathon.

In Friday matches played at Las Vegas High School, the Lady Trojans lost 25-16, 20-25, 15-8 to Bountiful, Utah, and 25-19, 25-17 to Palo Verde, before beating the host Wildcats 25-22, 25-19.

Placed in a qualifier Saturday morning, PVHS:

* defeated Las Vegas The Meadows 18-25, 25-15, 15-10;

* lost 25-17, 25-13 to Class 4-A Sunset Region Southwest Division rival Sierra Vista, and

* defeated Cimarron-Memorial 25-20, 25-16.

A tiebreaker dropped the Pahrump Valley girls into the Copper Division, where they swept Foothill, Rancho and Basic for the title.

Results of the other two divisions were not reported by presstime today.

Against Basic, senior middle hitter Kristi Daffer had 10 kills, 12 service points and 29 serve receives.

Arlette Scott, the Lady Trojans' primary setter, had 25 sets, nine assists to kills and eight points.

Sophomore setter Ashley Lindgren had 20 sets, six assists to kills and 11 points. Alyson Kunzi had five kills, as did Shayna Smith, who added two blocks.

Against Rancho, Daffer had five kills; Scott scored eight points and Vanessa Veloz added eight points.

Daffer had five kills, 14 points and a block against Foothill. Casey Scheller had three kills, as did Smith.

In the nine matches, Daffer had 65 kills, 46 points, four blocks, 12 digs and 165 serve-receives. Scott had 51 assists to kills, 52 points, 76 serve-receives, four blocks, five digs and three kills.

A couple sophomores contributed to the PVHS success. Scheller had 23 kills, six blocks, four digs and 16 points. Kunzi added 15 kills, 36 points, nine digs and was in on 22 blocks (full or touch).

Lindgren, another sophomore, had 28 points, 20 assists, three kills and three blocks. Smith finished with 20 kills.

Pahrump Valley makes its home debut in a non-division match against Henderson Liberty at 6 p.m. Thursday. On Sept. 11, the Lady Trojans go to Centennial and on Sept. 12, they take on former Southern Nevada Class 3-A League rival Las Vegas Faith Lutheran on the Crusaders' court.

The Trojans' Sunset-Southwest opener is Sept. 15 at Las Vegas Clark (5 p.m.).

NOTES -- Pahrump Valley's junior varsity team won one of six matches in the Lady Trojans invitational last weekend ... The Renae Lindgren-coached Trojans lost 25-21, 25-27, 15-12 to Beatty, 25-11, 25-10 to Gold Division champion Lake Mead Christian Academy, 25-21, 20-25, 15-8 to Maroon winner Las Vegas Calvary Chapel; defeated Laughlin 25-20, 25-19; lost 25-23, 27-26 to Calvary Chapel and 21-25, 25-15, 15-10 to Laughlin.