Salpointe over Desert Christian in a rare match
September 30, 2020 by Andy Morales, AZPreps365
Salpointe beat Desert Christian 3-0 Tuesday night to move to 2-0 on the year. The Lancers brought home 4A state championships in 2016 and 2017 before taking second place last year and the Eagles moved to the 1A Conference this fall after competing in the 2A South Region since 2016.
Desert Christian (1-3) and Salpointe have one more match scheduled against each other this fall and the two dates were made to fill out the schedules of the two programs in these unknown times.
“It doesn’t matter who we play because we are taking each team as it goes,” explained Salpointe setter Brandy Kishbaugh. “We are playing each game like it could be our last. We are going all out because we don’t know when it will end.”
The COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancelation of the 2020 spring season just as competition was starting and then precautions imposed by the state and the county caused a delay this fall. At this moment, Tucson area districts are slowly opening up and the Lancers are scheduled to host Cienega on Oct. 7.
Kishbaugh led all players with 17 assists and her main targets were senior outside Andrea Owens (8 kills) and juniors Emma Hugeback (6 kills) and Meena Moore (6 kills). Junior Nicole Witte took over setting duties in the third set and she finished with seven assists.
The two teams battled back and forth in the first and second set but the depth, length and skill level of the Lancers turned 9-7 leads in each set to identical 25-10 victories. The deciding set ended with a 25-20 victory for the Lancers.
The Eagles were impressive in their movement on the floor and their poise under the obvious circumstances and this experience can only lead to positive results down the road.
“We all talk on the floor and a game like this helps us hone our skills,” said senior setter Mackenzie Barr. “We obviously showed we can compete and this game will also help us get power points down the road.”
Barr finished with seven assists and she connected with junior Maddy Hebert five times. Hebert was able to hit around the block at the net which was impressive in itself.
The Lancers lost Katherine Schepelmann and Abby Russell (UA Beach) to graduation but Owens returns for her final year before moving on to play for North Texas.
“We area diverse group of girls,” Kishbaugh added. “We know there are a lot of teams that wish they were playing now and I think we are still getting to where we need to be and we could have an amazing year.”
