What started off looking like an easy win for the Sedona Red Rock High School volleyball team on Tuesday, Oct. 1 turned into an absolute grind. The Scorpions were up 2-0 heading into the third set of their match against Valley Lutheran and even held a 22-21 lead late in that set. But the Flames came back to win not only that set, but also the fourth to force a winner-take-all race to 15 in the fifth set.
Fortunately for the Scorpions, they got their mojo back at the right time. After the two teams alternated the first three points, senior opposite hitter Mary Westervelt began serving for Sedona with her team up 2-1. Her serve was eventually broken, but not before the Scorpions took a commanding 12-1 lead. From there, they went on cruise control to win the final set 15-7, securing a 3-2 match win in the process.
“We had a very in depth talk before the fifth set that I’d say geared everybody to want to do better in the fifth set,” SRRHS senior libero Amari Sonn said. “It was a roller coaster. Some things were good. Some things could have been better. But for the most part, we played as a team. We didn’t play how we wanted to play — but for a couple of sets we did.”
The Scorpions will see plenty of positives to build off of and negatives to improve upon when watching the film for this one. On the positive end, they were the much better team for the opening two sets, winning 25-20 in the opener and posting a dominant 25-16 win in the second set. The next two were much different. SRRHS lost 25-23 and 25-21 in the third and fourth sets, respectively.
“I think in the first two, it was like, ‘We need to beat this team,’ the momentum was up and it was there; we just wanted to hold our place,” senior defensive specialist Lizbeth Corral-Diaz said. “In the third set, I think we just got comfortable. We were like ‘Oh, we got them, we’re going to beat them really quick.’ But that’s not what happened. Our energy went up and down. It just didn’t go back up again … in the fifth set it definitely went back up. I feel like being at home helped a lot.”
Interestingly enough, one of the biggest negative takeaways came from the winning effort in the fifth set. After jumping out to a 12-1 lead, the Scorpions needed only three points to win the match. They eventually got them, but not before the Flames went on a 6-1 run to close the gap to 13-7.
Conversely, one of the main positive takeaways came in the previous set, which played out in almost the exact opposite fashion. The Scorpions trailed the visiting Flames 21-12 and looked on the verge of being completely blown out. They got hot from there and outscored Valley Lutheran 9-4 for the rest of the set. While it didn’t lead to a victory in the set, it did help Sedona regain much of the momentum that it had lost after the second set.
“Momentum is a funny thing in volleyball,” coach John Parks said. “At the end of the fourth set when we were down big, it was ‘Okay, we’re going to play a certain way.’ And they did. Even though we lost, we said again, ‘Okay, we’re going to carry that over and play a certain way.’ And we did to start off that fifth game and then we got sloppy again there for a little stretch.”
The win moved SRRHS to 14-4 overall with the only losses coming in tournaments. With the win, Sedona moved to No. 4 in the state among 2A teams [per AZPreps365.com]. In 2A Central Section play, the Scorpions sit at a perfect 5-0. Next up for the Scorpions is a home match against Camp Verde on Monday, Oct. 7. Following that, SRRHS will go on the road for matches with Northland Prep and Glendale Prep on Tuesday, Oct. 8 and Thursday, Oct. 12, respectively. Following that, the Scorpions won’t play again until a home date with Scottsdale Prep on Tuesday, Oct. 22. All matches start at 6 p.m.
Michael Dixon can be reached at 282-7795 ext 131 or email to mdixon@larsonnewspapers.com
