Lucas Gordon|Arizona Republic
The Arizona Interscholastic Association girls high school volleyball championships were held Saturday at Veterans Memorial Colisium in Phoenix for 2A through 6A conferences. Here is a roundup of the two early games. 4A through 6A finals were being held later in the day, check back for updates on azcentral.com:
3A: Snowflake downs NW Christian
After a wild third set, Snowflake won its first 3A state championship. The Lobos took down the Crusaders of Northwest Christian, which hadwon three of the last four 3A girls' volleyball titles.
Snowflake won in straight sets 25-18, 25-23, and 31-29 on Saturday at Veterans Memorial Colisium in Phoenix.
In the third set Snowflake found itself down to its last point. The Lobos avoided the loss by winning the next point to continue the game. Snowflake went on to win the following point as well to set up match point.
Northwest Christian answered back by winning the next point to tie the set again. Snowflake found themselves again at match point before losing the next two points to go down 27-26.With their backs against the wall, the Lobos found a way to stay alive again and win the next two points.
This sequence happened twice again before Snowflake found themselves with a 30-29 and finally won the final point 31-29.
Snowflake head coach Jamie Robinson was able to keep her team in the game during these stressful moments.
"My team has a lot of grit. We have a lot of determination and we tried to focus on one point at a time and play our game. We wanted to control what we could on our side and make them make mistake."
In the three sets that were played, Snowflake's defense played a big part in its offense. The Lobos scored 14 points off of blocks from five different players.
The entire team got in on the scoring for Snowflake. Seven different players recorded a kill with junior Livi Schnieder leading the way with 18. Junior setter Braxton Jones assisted most of the kills with 41 assists on the day.
Snowflake was able to get back to the championship after losing in the title game last year.
"Last year was a steppingstone for this year," said Robinson. "It was nice we made it, but the girls felt it and got a taste of it last year and now they werent going to leave here without the championship."
2A: Phoenix Country Day overSt. Johns
Phoenix Country Day School has won back-to-back state championships after taking down St. Johns in four sets. The win by the Eagles started off a full day of state championship volleyball at the Arizona Veterans Coliseum.
After losing the first set, Phoenix Country Day came into the second set playing a much better game. The Eagles started off the set on a 7-2 run and never looked back. From the second set on Phoenix Country Day trailed for a total of two points.
"We just wanted to settle in and play our game. I think we were nervous in the first set and wanted to get back to playing our game," said Phoenix Country Day head coach KatGlaeseman. "We started figuring out what the other side was doing, and we started getting more in our rhythm."
The Eagles won all three of its sets by at least seven points.
A majority of the Eagles points throughout the game came fromoutside hitter Quincy Rodin. The sophom*ore accounted for 32 kills on the day. The next closest player to Rodin in kills was St. John's Olivia Wiltbank with 21.
Freshman setter Josie Robinson was also crucial in Phoenix Country Day's win. She had a game high 46 assists.
Phoenix Country Day's championship this season was more improbable than the one that came last year due to inexperience. The Eagles lost five seniors to graduation and played with a majority of sophom*ores and freshmen this season.
"This was supposed to be a rebuilding year. We weren't sure how far we would get this year. It feels so good, there was so much buy in with this team this year. We came and played hard," said Glaeseman.
This was the highest that St. John's had finished in volleyball in program history. The Redskins had to face a lot of adversity throughout the playoffs as they came in as the 10-seed.
Phoenix Country Day will return most of its roster next season and have its sight towards securing a third straight championship in the 2023 season.
