The West Sedona School volleyball “A” team got served Tuesday, Sept. 23, at Big Park Community School.

Eighth-grader Desiray Davis’ three aces for the Wildcats were dwarfed by a combined 17 from Coyotes eighth-graders Victoria Trujillo, Mary Claire Westervelt and Kelsey Woellmer as the Coyotes stayed in the hunt for the Verde Valley Conference championship, sweeping the regular-season series from West Sedona, 25-14, 25-12.

“Serving pays off,” Big Park head coach Shelley Woellmer said. “Our strategy was to return Desiray’s serve back low [and] over the net. That’s why we won — we handled her serve.

“All the kids, they played the strategy perfectly well. They executed it flawlessly, they followed direction and instruction, and that’s why it worked.”

Trujillo added two tips for points as she and the other two ace queens propelled the Coyotes to a 6-2 record, keeping pace in third place in the conference — one game behind one-loss Camp Verde Middle School and two games behind undefeated Clarkdale-Jerome School, whose bump-set-spike game the Coyotes are “very hungry for,” Woellmer said.

“All of a sudden, we’ve had coachability — which we haven’t had in earlier games — and desire,” she said. “Even the kids who came off the bench, they did exactly what they supposed to do.”

Westervelt’s eight aces, Kelsey Woellmer’s five and Trujillo’s four overwhelmed the effort by Davis, who led a 12-point comeback in the first set to bring the Wildcats within nine points before Trujillo put it away.

For the full story, please see the Friday, Sept. 26, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.