Sedona Juniors head coach Danni Barker has adjusted her expectations for the Saturday, Jan. 23, debut of her younger club volleyball team after losing three close matches with her older girls.
“We’re hoping to serve well,” Barker said of her 15s team after her 17s fell in six straight games Jan. 9 in Queen Creek. “We’re working with two new setters that I’m hoping will get the offense going.”
Although Wren Putman and Avery Stewart are still getting used to being in charge on the court and running the offense, they form half the core of returnees from last spring’s 15s club team. Barker will be looking to them for leadership, along with Alex Edwards and Rebecca Kay.
Fellow second-semester Sedona Red Rock High School students Nicole Kleva, Hayli Sizelove and Desiray Davis, who Barker says is “serving really strong,” form the rest of the 15s, along with Chloe Hyer and Abby Stevenson. Ranked 18th out of 74 teams in the club division, they will open against the top-ranked AZ Saguaros, out of Phoenix, at the American Sports Center in Avondale beginning at 8 a.m. on Jan. 23.
As both Juniors teams warm up from winter into spring, their quest at six other Saturday tournaments will remain the same: Improving enough to win regional championships and qualify for the USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championships, beginning Friday, June 24, in Indianapolis, Ind.
“We’ve got some potential in the next few years, so I’m excited about that,” said Barker, who looks for her 17s to move up to the Gold Division after winning the Silver Division championship at last spring’s regionals. “I just want them to keep getting better.”
Regionals for the 15s will be held Saturday, April 30, while the 55th-ranked 17s will join 65 other championship division teams Saturday, May 7, at their regionals. Both tournaments will be played in Phoenix at sites and times, and against teams, to be determined five days prior.
“They’re just another tournament, just like all of these,” Barker said. “It’s just that there, you have an opportunity to win it all for your division.”
Plus, they will play considerably more than the three matches the 17s played in their Jan. 16 debut against three clubs of 18-year-olds. Despite being swept, playing the Ambush, AZ Crushers and Zona 18s close has Barker optimistic.
“They never got down; they never gave up,” Barker said. “There’s no drama, no negativity on the court. Considering we’d never played together before and had three 14-year-olds on the team, we did pretty well.”
But Barker will have to do without the services of Big Park Community School eighth-graders Jacki King, Morgan Fritz and Mary Westervelt at their next tournament Saturday, Jan. 30. Fritz’s older sister, Megan, will join a group of shorter Sedona Red Rock High School junior varsity volleyball players Lindsey Jones, Lindsey Meyers, Kira Sapach, Victoria Trujillo, Olivia Webster and freshman Kelsey Woellmer.
“We’re a pretty good defensive team, actually,” Barker said. “We’re pretty quick on the court. We just don’t have anybody to put the ball away right now.”