It seems odd, but Salpointe and Canyon del Oro are only going to meet on the court once this year for the first time since 2015, when “section” opponents only met once. Since then, the two power teams played a home-and-home series as members of the 4A Kino Region. The singular match could have bearing on the region title and the automatic playoff berth attached to it but the Lancers made the most of the situation by sweeping Canyon del Oro Wednesday night 25-15, 27-25 and 25-19.

The region champion in the 4A Conference will earn an automatic playoff berth but it’s not clear how that would come into play with the Lancers only competing in three region matches while Canyon del Oro, Pueblo, Cholla are playing six and Sahuaro is playing five, but there’s another factor working big in the Lancer’s favor in the form of rankings.

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The top eight teams in the 4A Conference will miss the play-in bracket and move directly to the state tournament as a host in the first-round on Nov. 14. Salpointe (9-1 overall, 1-0 in region) is ranked No. 2 in the state, right behind No. 1 Seton Catholic. The Sentinels beat Salpointe in an epic 3-2 victory last week in what might be preview of the state championship match.

The Lancers control their own destiny at this point but Canyon del Oro (2-1, 1-1) is only three matches in with plenty of chances to improve down the road including a rare round-robin fiesta this Saturday at Ironwood Ridge with Buckeye Verrado joining in.

Salpointe jumped out quickly with Brandy Kishbaugh (39 assists) finding her main weapon in Andrea Owens (20 kills) early on and often. The 25-15 score was indicative of a seasoned team meeting a team just finding its way and the Dorados bounced back in the second set to keep things close at 20-20.

The Lancers went on to take a 24-21 lead in the set but Katie Call (23 assists) found Anissa El-Ali (6 kills) and Sasha Ross (5 kills) twice to tie the match up 24-24. Th Dorados went up 25-24 but Kishbaugh returned to Owens and the Lancers closed the set out 27-25.

Abby Whatton (8 kills) helped the Dorados keep things close in the third set but Leah Palomares (9 kills) put down two kills in the final moments to help the Lancers seal a 25-19 win.

The Dorados will host Tucson (1-3) on Thursday night and Salpointe will host Cholla (0-2) also on Thursday night.

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