The Sedona Red Rock High School’s volleyball team took on a rough loss on Wednesday, Sept. 4, to the North Valley Christian Lions, which the Lions won in straight sets. 

The first set started off very slow with the Scorpions being down 11- 2 early on. The communication seemed off, causing the team to lose some crucial points. 

After the Lions were up 12-2, Scorpions Head Coach John Parks called timeout, which seemed to boost morale but did not make the end result of the first set any better. The Scorpions, however, did take two quick points off of the Lions’ errors, making the score 13-4. 

While a comeback was possible, it wasn’t going to happen in the first set, as the Lions jumped back at the Scorpions, earning nine more points. Senior Amy Brefeld scored a nice point with a hard spike, however, that was it for the Scorpions, who lost the first set 25-5. 

“We didn’t play well,” Parks said. “I know we don’t have a lot of height, and so that’s really hurting us against these bigger teams that run quick sets. But it felt like the teamwork had to be better, though I didn’t feel like our teamwork was what it needed to be. I know there are certain areas where we’re going to have issues with our height, but that shouldn’t affect our teamwork.” 

The Scorpions got a pep talk from Parks and took the break to fix teamwork issues. When the second set began the Scorpions looked rejuvenated and ready to play. Though Sedona lost the first three points, this did not get them down, as they clawed back and won the next four points, giving them their first lead of 4-3. 

This lead was instantly taken back by the Lions and the Scorpions found themselves down 10-7. 

After another timeout, the Scorpions performed noticeably better, taking the next four points and the lead at 11-10. The four points came from a kill by senior Sierra Williams, a block from junior Addi Moore, an error by the Lions and the last point came from a dump by junior Sheila Montes de Oca. With these four points, the Scorpions started to look better, with boosted morale and higher-level playing. 

Moore provided the Scorpions with two fantastic aces, bringing the Scorpions to 15-12. Both teams stepped it up, and tied the score at 17. And after a double touch by the Scorpions, the Lions took back the lead 18-17. With another timeout, Parks aimed to keep the team calm. 

However, the Scorpions lost the next six points and were down 24-17, and after scoring just one more point, they lost the second set 25-18. 

“I think it’s because we let our nerves get the best of us, and we started overthinking our play, and started rushing ourselves,” senior Katrina Le said. “When we’re all serious, we are all too tense and nervous.” 

The third set was off to a fantastic start for the Scorpions being up 5-2 due to errors by the Lions, a kill by Williams and an ace by freshman Xitlalic Herrera Juarez. 

However, this fantastic start did not last long as the Lions quickly bounced back and took the lead 6-5. The Lions continued their scoring run, leaving the Scorpions down 10-7. 

Parks again called a timeout, but it had no effect; the Scorpions were doing their best to battle back into the game, but it was quickly slipping out of their hands with the Lions scoring the next seven points, making it 17-7. 

The Scorpions kept fighting to stay in the game but lost the third set 25-11 to end the game. 

“I think we tried to make too many individual plays and not enough doing what we’re supposed to and running what we’re supposed to run,” Parks said. “We played very individual today. They’ll fix it. I showed them, I talked to them about it already. They agreed and they understand what they were doing wrong, and I think they’ll be fine. Some of these challenges that we’re facing, we will face all season. We just only have three girls that can get their hands above the net to block a ball — that’s not going to change … so our teamwork has to be spot on every single time for us to hang with teams that can hit the ball at the team and just play tonight.” 

The Scorpions’ next home game on Sept. 12 has been rescheduled to Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 5 p.m. against the BASIS Phoenix Firebirds