Madison Navarrete kept feeding and feeding and Alina Nuñez kept hitting and hitting. The Canyon del Oro senior outside finished with 32 kills in a 3-1 victory over Catalina Foothills Wednesday night at home but her final six kills were possibly the most impressive.

The Falcons needed the fourth set to push the contest to a fifth and the Andrea Soroa to Molly Brunell scoring machine was also in high gear. Soroa hit Brunell three times and Tori Staples came up with two huge blocks and the Falcons had a 21-19 lead. Navarrete responded with a cross court offering to Nuñez and the lead was cut down to 21-20. A service error by the Dorados was followed by a kill by Ana Haubner and the Falcons took what looked like an impossible-to-overcome 23-20 lead on the Dorados.

The Dorados were in a perfect rotation for their offense and Navarrete hit Nuñez five straight times on the left side to close out the victory. Navarrete finished with 44 assists and Macy Whatton added 11 kills.

Soroa had 25 assists for Catalina Foothills and Brunell had 15 kills. The Falcons also put together 14 aces which came up big in the second set after the Dorados took the first one 25-21. Down 21-19 in the second set, a service error, combined with a couple of aces from Julia Ford, a kill from Brunell, a block from Brooklyn Palmer and another ace from Brunell, gave the Falcons a 25-22 win and a 1-1 tie. The Dorados took the third set 25-18 to go up 2-1.

The Falcons made the state playoffs for the third time in three straight seasons last year under former head coach Nic Thiltges and former Falcon standout Andrew Adair is in his first year with the girl’s program. The Falcons lost current University of Arizona freshman Lauren Rumel to graduation but Adair has a talented group that defeated Mica Mountain 3-1 on Monday and gave the 4A runner-up Dorados all they could handle Wednesday night. Catalina Foothills (1-1) will have a little break before traveling to play Empire (1-0) next Tuesday.

Mike Owens led the Dorados to that runner-up finish to Notre Dame Prep last year and first-year head coach Jose Robles inherits one of the top players in the state in Nuñez. Nuñez commited to play for Fort Lewis earlier this month.

Canyon del Oro (1-0) will travel to play Thatcher (1-0) on Tuesday.

Molly Brunell. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)