Xavier Prep’s Gators did what they needed to do and took care of business on Monday (Oct. 31), sweeping Glendale Mountain Ridge 3-0 in a 6A Conference “play-in’’ game at the Activity Center.
Xavier
(20-12) was the highest-rated play-in team at No. 9, while Mountain Ridge
(10-21) was the lowest at No. 24.
Xavier moves
on to the first round of the state tournament that begins on Thursday (Nov. 3),
and the opponent is expected to be Queen Creek, which had been the No. 8 team
in the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s power points rankings. First-round
pairings will be announced on Wednesday (Nov. 2).
Queen Creek (21-13-1)
and Xavier had been battling down to the wire over the last few weeks to determine
which might wind up being the eighth seed and which might be the ninth.
Thursday
night’s winner is expected to go on and face top-rated Tempe Corona del Sol (35-5)
on Oct. 8 in a quarterfinal contest. Corona del Sol has defeated Queen Creek
and Xavier.
Xavier has
not played Queen Creek a whole lot over the years, but Gators Coach Lamar-Renee
Bryant said most of what matches there have been have been very competitive.
“I’m happy
for our seniors with the way they played today, in their final home match with
Xavier,’’ she said. “It’s about how you handle these types of matches that
keeps you going.’’
This play-in
game originally was to have been played on Tuesday (Nov. 1), but festivities on
campus for the 60th anniversary of Xavier President and former
Principal Joan Fitzgerald at the school caused the schedule to be altered.
“I want to
thank Mountain Ridge and the AIA to allow this to happen for us with such a
meaningful moment for Sr. Joan,’’ said Bryant.
Xavier was
strong at the net against Mountain Ridge.
The setters
spread the wealth to the front-liners, giving them many opportunities to put
the ball down into the Mountain Lions’ side of the court.
Junior
Camilla Cornejo-Farmer and junior Finley Workman had seven kills apiece and
sophomore Courtney Snopko had six.
Workman also
had nine digs on defense, and sophomore libero Olivia Lenz had 11. Senior
setter Ava Larkin had 23 assists.
No comments:
Post a Comment