Pahrump Valley Volleyball Club ends first season with hard-fought growth

The scoreboard favored Teal at Schofield, but Pahrump Valley Volleyball Club left its final tournament with something more valuable than a win-loss record: proof that a first-year program can quickly create a real path for local girls to keep playing in Pahrump.

The season-ending matchup, played at 8 p.m., ended in a two-set loss to a Teal team that reportedly finished second in the tournament. Even so, the Pahrump side continued to show the kind of progress that mattered most in a debut year, with better communication, cleaner ball control, stronger defensive reads and more pressure from the service line.

PVVC launched on Dec. 4, 2025, under Pahrump Valley High School coach Amber Lugo with a simple goal, to keep athletes in town instead of forcing them to join club teams elsewhere. The roster was built as a blended-age group of players ages 14 through 18 competing in the 18U division, with the club planning to play in the V League and the Under Armour National Championships in Las Vegas through May.

That growth showed early in the first set. Miani Freitas-Faamai opened with a spike and then an ace, giving Pahrump Valley the spark it wanted. She stayed one of the club’s most consistent offensive threats, repeatedly challenging the defense with well-placed attacks. Xe’ane Kamanu added a block at the net, Mahina Decambra served an ace and Emri Wulfenstein and Daisy Skougard kept pressure on from the line as the set turned into a back-and-forth battle.

Even as the first set slipped away, Pahrump Valley kept competing with more patience than a first-year club might be expected to show. The team started tipping into open space and making better adjustments during rallies, signs of a group learning how to read the court as much as how to swing at the ball.

The second set brought another burst of focus. Freitas-Faamai again created early offense, Decambra stayed steady on serve and the team forced errors by extending rallies and keeping the ball in play. Marley Gomez delivered one of the match’s loudest moments with a well-timed block, while Xe’ane Kamanu and Emri Wulfenstein each added points that reflected the club’s growing depth.

That development fits the need Lugo saw before the club ever played a match. Players had asked her, “Can we keep going?” after the high-school season ended, and more than 65 girls attended a junior-high camp before tryouts. Lugo, who also coaches boys volleyball for PVHS Athletics, built the club to meet that demand. After one season, PVVC has already shown the clearest sign a community volleyball program can offer: families in Pahrump now have another place to start, stay and improve.