Finishing this past week’s slate of games 4-3, the Lady Eagles (22-9 overall, 10-2 league) found moral victories to build upon despite dropping out of first place contention with their second consecutive loss to current division leader Virgin Valley.
Dropping a league-deciding match to the Bulldogs in four sets Monday on the road, 25-23, 19-25, 24-26, 15-25, the Eagles will now have to fight for a second place finish with an upcoming trip to Moapa Valley potentially serving as a tiebreaker for the two teams.
Running into a pair of the conference’s most established players in senior Bernice Fiso and junior Janella Fiso of Virgin Valley, the Lady Eagles battled throughout Monday’s contest, but simply couldn’t find a way to put away the Bulldogs after winning the game’s first set.
While Monday’s loss will be tough to swallow for the next few days, a Silver Bracket championship at the Catalina Foothills Falcon Tournament this past weekend certainly eases their pain.
Coming from behind to win their bracket, the Lady Eagles opened the Arizona tournament with a 2-0 victory over Amphitheater, 25-10, 25-10, before falling to Sabino, 22-25, 16-25, and Salpointe Catholic, 17-25, 14-25, in straight sets. On day two of the event, the Lady Eagles would sweep Rio Rico, 25-12, 25-13, while pulling away from Gila Ridge in a third and deciding set, 19-25, 25-20, 15-8.
Standout performance from this past week of play includes seniors Tara Cox (70 assists, 15 aces, 15 digs, 10 kills and one block), Jaden Wood (40 kills, 22 digs, seven aces and three blocks) and (Bayden Huxford (six digs, eight kills and seven aces), along with junior Alea Lehr (45 assists, seven digs, seven aces and four kills) and sophomore Maggie Roe (36 digs, 32 kills, 12 aces and seven blocks).
Coming into Moapa Valley next Thursday, the lady Eagles know they can’t reflect on anything from this past week, with their season potentially on the line.
Furthering her coaches confidence Tuesday in practice, senior Libero Bayden Huxford said, “We beat them once and we’ll beat them again,” as she walked back to practice.
The girls will have senior night Tuesday against Chaparral before concluding the regular season next Thursday in Overton against the Pirates.