Sedona Red Rock High School’s No. 12 ranked volleyball team headed to McClintock High School in Tempe on Saturday, Nov. 14, hoping for an upset in their matchup with No. 5 Round Valley in the first part of the Arizona Interscholastic 2A state volleyball tournament. Unfortunately for Sedona, that wasn’t in the cards.
The Scorpions were missing second team setter Stephanie Medel. Despite that, they were competitive against the Elks. But Round Valley was up to the task, pulling out narrow victories in all three sets to defeat Sedona 3-0.
“I think we played pretty good,” SRRHS junior Emma Beattie said. “Personally, I feel like we could have played a little better. But we also had a switch of rotations two days before and were missing our setter. The scores weren’t bad at all. For a state game and for a young team I thought we played pretty good.”
The Scorpions came out flat, falling behind 12 in the opening set. While a slow start is normally a recipe for an underdog team to get blown out, Sedona fought back and narrowed the deficit to three. But Round Valley regained its composure to win 25-20 and take a 1-0 lead.
The second and third sets were more evenly played. In the end, though, the Elks were just a little bit more effective, winning 25-21 and 28-26 to pull off the victory.
“We got stuck in a rotation in the first set,” Beattie said. “Once we got out of that, we got back into it. We kind of picked up our game and thought, ‘We need to start with it now.’ The second and third sets were definitely better than the first.”
While single elimination tournaments often lead to upsets, the first two rounds of the tournament were completely by the books. The Elks’ victory over the Scorpions helped contribute to a 7-0 first round for the favored teams, with No. 1 Trivium Prep receiving a first round bye. The chalk trend continued in the second round with Trivium, No. 2 Scottsdale Christian, No. 3 Pima and No. 4 Chandler Prep all winning their quarterfinal matchups to advance to the semifinals.
Including the loss to Round Valley and the play-in game victory over Bisbee, the Scorpions finished their season at 9-7. They had a regular season mark of 7-6 in 2A Conference play and were in fourth place in the 2A Central Region, going 7-4 in those games.
Teams that qualify for the postseason are generally more experienced, with seniors and juniors usually making up most of the lineup. That’s not the case for SRRHS, though. With no seniors on the roster, the Scorpions can return everyone in 2021. They also additionally figure to add some incoming freshmen, who as eighth graders, recently won their league championship.
Of the returning players, Beattie, Medel and freshman Rachel Roderick were all named All-Region second team while sophomore Bella Williams was All-Region honorable mention.
Having a deep group of returning players gives the Scorpions reason to be optimistic about what lies ahead.
“For being such a young team, where we ended up in our region and overall was pretty good,” Beattie said. “Next year I think we’ll be a lot better. We won’t lose anyone. But I like where we stood overall. For being such a young team, we’re in a good place.”
