What was a fantastic season from the Sedona Red Rock High School Volleyball team came to an end on Friday, Nov. 8 in the quarterfinals of the AIA State Girls Volleyball Championship Tournament.
Things got started on a good note for the No. 4 seeded Scorpions when they handed Morenci — who earned its spot in that game with a play-in round win over Round Valley — a 3-0 defeat. That put Sedona into a quarterfinal matchup with No. 5 Trivium Prep. The Crimson Knights jumped out to a 2-0 win over the Scorpions and went on to a 3-1 victory.
“I think we played very well in the first game,” SRRHS senior Mary Westervelt said. “We cut it too close in the second game. Sometimes we just didn’t execute properly in the key situations.”
Trivium got things going with a 25-20 win in the opening set. In the second set, the two teams battled beyond the usual race to 25. Ultimately, though, the Crimson Knights prevailed 27-25 to take a commanding 2-0 lead.
SRRHS did answer in the third set, winning 25-15. But Trivium Prep closed the door from there, winning 25-19 in the fourth set to close the match out. The Crimson Knights went on to take No. 1 seed Thatcher to the full five sets before finally losing. No. 2 Scottsdale Christian ultimately defeated Thatcher to win the 2A state championship.
For Sedona, the loss to the Crimson Knights followed a similar script to the regular season defeat against Scottsdale Prep — the Scorpions only regular season loss to a 2A opponent. In both matches, SRRHS started slow and dropped the first set, lost a close second set, won the third and fell in the fourth.
On the positive end, another similarity is that in both matches, the Sedona team was pleased with the effort it gave, even when facing a heavy deficit.
“I think we played well — we really connected,” freshman Helen Westervelt said. “We never gave up and showed leadership.”
Including the postseason, the Scorpions finished the year 22-8 overall with a 17-2 record against 2A opponents. SRRHS went 11-1 in 2A Central Section play, which was good enough for an outright Section championship.
“I was really happy with the season,” Mary said. “We won the section, came together, grew our skills and had a lot of fight. The coaching was really good, too. They motivated us and got us to play to our full potential.”
As strong as 2019 was, an early look toward 2020 provides a similarly bright, if not brighter outlook.
The Scorpions will return an experienced team for at least two more seasons. With the exception of the team’s six seniors, the entire SRRHS was comprised of four sophomores and three freshmen, many of whom logged significant playing time during the year.
Still, replacing those seniors — Westervelt, Kaitlyn Akerele, Lizbeth Corral-Diaz, Morgan Fritz, Odalis Robles and Amari Sonn — will undeniably pose a challenge, namely in the leadership department. During this season, it was primarily the seniors who stepped up with words of encouragement when things weren’t going well. It will be the charge of the younger players to fill that void. If they do, the outlook of the team is positive.
“We need to know how to cheer each other up,” Helen said. “We’re going in the right direction. We need to practice harder in the offseason and put some more time in during the summer. I can’t wait for next year.”
No matter what the future holds, though, the legacy that the 2019 team leaves behind is one that the players on it are pleased with.
“This year was really amazing,” Helen said. “I got to meet a lot of new people who were kind and amazing.”
Her older sister agreed.
“I’m definitely proud of the girls and how hard we fought,” Mary said. “Obviously I wish it would have ended differently. But overall it was a good year and I’m happy we made it as far as we did.”
