Vikings pillage Falcons in ’09 finals rematch
MARC BUCKHOUT ~MANAGING EDITOR ~ 9/8/2010

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The venue was different.
The stakes were different.
But much to the chagrin of the host Cactus Shadows volleyball team the results were very much the same as the Falcons were swept by the Sunnyslope Vikings on Thursday.
In only the second match of the 2010 season the two teams that went head-to-head for the 4A Div-I state crown last November took to the court once again, this time on the Falcons home court.
“Obviously we wanted to come out and do well against them,” Cactus Shadows coach Tom Gardner said. “Beating them would have been a big confidence boost, but that didn’t happen. Obviously we have the opportunity to learn from this though.”
After graduating only three players from last year’s squad, which went 32-12 on its way to a Desert Sky Region championship, Gardner said the 2010 edition of the team has more offensive weapons.
“It’s just too bad that we didn’t really show that tonight,” he said.
While senior outside hitter Summer Anderson consistently was able to end runs by the defending state champion Vikings her teammates were more erratic as Sunnyslope prevailed 25-13, 27-25, 25-12.
Gardner acknowledged his team didn’t appear comfortable early in the match as Sunnyslope ran out to an 8-2 lead in the match’s opening game.
“I’m not sure if that was being intimidated or apprehensive, but we didn’t attack the way we’re capable of hitting the ball,” he said.
The early struggles also included serve receive as the Falcons never got the deficit closer than five in the opening game, falling 25-13.
To their credit the Falcons responded in the second game, starting strong as they pushed to a 13-6 lead when senior libero Jordan Smith rattled off four straight points from the service line. Smith, who also showed her defensive prowess by making some spectacular digs throughout the match, proved potent with a jump serve that earned two consecutive aces during the run.
A stellar Vikings offense though would bring the visitors back into the match as they went on an 8-1 run to tie the match at 14.
With the scored tied at 15 the Falcons turned to Anderson, who put down two kills in a 4-0 spurt that temporarily turned back the hard-charging Vikings.
It wouldn’t be enough though as a 7-1 run by Sunnyslope, which included two blocks by junior Trianna Henry, made the score 22-20.
Cactus Shadows withstood four game points, but eventually fell 27-25.
“We need to be mentally tougher,” Gardner said. “You’d like to think we would have gained confidence from that second game. You have to look at it that the first game was a fluke and that the second game was closer to what we’re capable of doing. With that you have to believe that you can comeback and sweep three straight games. Instead we had a mental letdown.”
The third game got away from the Falcons quickly as they fell behind 9-4, never getting closer than four points the rest of the game as the Vikings finished off the sweep with a 25-12 final game victory.
Gardner said that the loss doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.
“They beat us pretty good early in the season last year and we bounced back to play for the championship,” he said. “We’d like to face them again. It’s up to us to get better and play with confidence. If we take care of our side and they were to end up not making it back to the finals I wouldn’t much care.”
On Tuesday the Falcons looked to bounce back when they faced Mingus in Cottonwood (results were unavailable at press time). On Thursday Cactus Shadows returns home to play host to Apache Junction in the Desert Sky Region opener for both teams. The match is tentatively scheduled to
start at 6 p.m.

BOULDER CREEK
On Thursday the Jaguars moved to 2-0 on the season with a three-game sweep of La Joya by scores of 25-18, 25-14, 25-20.
In their opener, a home game match against Pinnacle on Aug. 31, the Jaguars overcame a slow start in which they dropped the opening game 13-25, to win the next three games by scores of 25-23, 25-21, 25-23.
Kelsey Holland and Felicia Zerwas contributed seven kills each to pace Boulder Creek. Defensively Holland and Amanda Haagen were stoppers at the net while Rachael Lentine, with 29 digs and Haley Owens, with 23 digs, were strong in the back row.
The Jaguars looked to remain undefeated on the season when they played host to Kingman on Tuesday in the Northwest Region opener (results were unavailable at press time). The Jaguars then were off for a week before resuming play at Mountain Ridge on Tuesday. The match is tentatively scheduled to start at 6 p.m.