Sometimes special players have special nights. Tuesday night was one of those for Sedona Red Rock senior Emma Beattie in the Scorpions 25-10, 25-18, 25-19 sweep of the Camp Verde Cowboys.
Even as the resilient Cowboys clawed back and put a solid string of points together, the Scorpions [5-0] knew what to do.
“We kind of just know if someone is doing really well you keep setting them up if you can,” senior Sarah Frey said. “And [Beattie] was just knocking them out. She was on fire so it was obvious to get it to her.”
Each time the ball found its way to Beattie, she found a way to punish the Cowboys with a high vertical leap and a forceful cross-court spike.
Head coach John Parks said he didn’t tell his team to seek out Beattie while she was heating up. They knew what to do and when to do it
“[Beattie] was just on and we were feeding the beast,” Parks said.
Team play has been a focus of the Scorpions in practice as of late and it showed. They played as a unit and stayed relaxed when stray balls forced them to leave their traditional formation.
“There’s obviously always some balls that are out of system and being able to work on that made it a lot easier for us to know where we need to go,” Frey said. “It made it a lot easier.”
In what seems to be a recurring theme thus far for Sedona, the team got off to a quick start. It earned the first 7 points of the match, and led by as much as 15-3 in the first set. The Scorpions held a noticeable size advantage and exploited that.
Sophomore Rachel Roderick held down the middle, using her tall frame to block several attempts from the Cowboys. Parks thinks that Roderick’s start juiced up his team and helped gain momentum right away.
“[Roderick] got off to a good start early,” he said. “I think that sucked them in a little bit.”
The first set continued on that trajectory. The Scorpions won the set easily, 25-10.
“[Beattie] was just on and we were feeding the beast,” Parks said.
It only got tougher from there. The Cowboys regrouped nicely going into the second and put together some excellent rallies. The teams traded points back-and-forth early. After a tie at 12 points apiece, Sedona began to pull away thanks to an incredible stretch of spiking from Beattie.
Sedona pulled off a 11-2 run, taking a 23-14 advantage. Despite the best efforts from Camp Verde to steal the set away, the run was too much and Sedona pulled off the 25-18 win to take a 2-0 lead.
The third and what turned out to be the final set was the most competitive. Camp Verde seemed to find their stride midway despite a blazing start from Sedona. The Scorpions opened on a 10-2 run with an impressive display of passing. From that point, the Cowboys made a run of their own, capturing 17 of the next 28 points to close the gap. But up 21-19, Sedona closed the door.
The Scorpions took the final 4 points to finish the sweep 3-0. Through its first five regular season matches, Sedona is yet to lose a set. Frey says the team is well aware of that streak and wants to keep it going, but they won’t be too down on themselves when it inevitably ends.
“It wouldn’t be that disappointing if we did [drop a set],” she said. “Just as long as we played hard and didn’t lose it for nothing.”
Parks maintains that the streak isn’t on his mind and that the team can still play better.
“We’ve got a long ways to go,” he said. “We’ve got to block better and our team defense is still a little bit off. We’re playing good defense but not good team defense.”
The Scorpions look to keep improving through a busy week next week. They play three games next week: At Glendale Prep on Monday, vs. Tuba City at home Tuesday and at Desert Heights Prep Academy Thursday to finish the slate.
