Pahrump Valley boys volleyball sweeps American Heritage Academy to end season

A packed home crowd watched Pahrump Valley end its regular season the way a young program wants to finish, with a 3-0 sweep of American Heritage Academy on senior night. The Trojans won 25-15, 25-16 and 25-18, then stayed on the floor to celebrate seniors Andy Sanchez, Alexander Mahoney, James Wilson, Elijah Thompson, Ryan Nasso and George Anderson after a night that felt bigger than the scoreboard.

The match carried the energy of a program that had spent the year building itself in public. Players huddled before the first serve, dashed down the baseline after points and collected high fives from fans and JV coach Andi Bishop, while varsity head coach Amber Lugo talked to her team during a timeout. For a boys volleyball team in its first season as an NIAA-sanctioned program, that scene mattered: the Trojans were not just finishing a season, they were showing a school community what a new athletic identity can look like.

That growth showed up in the results. Pahrump Valley had already taken a major step on April 1 with a 3-1 win over Cristo Rey St. Viator, the program’s first league victory. By the end of the regular season, the Trojans were 4-16 overall and 2-6 in league play, finishing seventh in 3A league action, one spot shy of a playoff berth. Even so, the final sweep over American Heritage Academy gave the season a finish that reflected more control, more confidence and more competitiveness than the program had at the start.

Andy Sanchez was the clearest sign of that progress. The senior led Pahrump Valley in kills with 151, digs with 204, blocks with 17 and receptions with 274, anchoring the lineup through a season that began with the school’s first-ever scrimmage on Feb. 23 at El Dorado High School. That early appearance, under the guidance of Bishop, marked the start of a year in which every match seemed to add something to the team’s foundation.

Lugo has pushed that foundation beyond one spring season by founding the Pahrump Valley Volleyball Club to give local athletes year-round training opportunities. A junior-high camp tied to the club drew more than 65 girls, a sign that the sport’s pipeline in Pahrump is already widening. The sweep over American Heritage Academy closed one chapter, but it also gave Nye County a clear measure of where the program stands now and how much further it can go next year.