Chrystal Stone is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Central High School for AZPreps365.com

A season-long struggle with on-court communication continued in the Central girls volleyball team’s three-set loss to the Betty H. Fairfax Stampede on Tuesday night. On an evening celebrating Central’s seniors, Fairfax stormed away winning 25-14, 25-18, and 25-21. 

The Bobcats came out flat in the first set, allowing two six-point serving runs from Fairfax seniors Sophia Villa and Isabel Cienfuegos, which included a combined six aces. The Stampede served a total 14 aces for the match. 

“Communication right at the beginning of the game just didn’t really happen,” Central’s assistant coach Rudy Hernandez said. 

Central’s coach Kristin Harris noted getting her team to be more vocal on the court has been a work in progress all season. 

“We really need to exchange information,” Harris said. “We really need to work on our communication and that’s just something we build continuously.”

This was Central’s second loss to Fairfax this season. The Stampede hosted the Bobcats on Sept. 28 and also won in straight sets. 

In this week’s practice, Harris said she focused on court coverage due to the Stampede’s success with tipping the ball in last month’s match. However, Fairfax flipped the script and came out with a dominating hitting game that produced 20 kills for the match.

“They had some wicked hitters,” Harris said. “Their cross-court was really great offense. It was also tough to read where they were gonna go. They had really good fakes as well. They switched up their offense. They didn’t tip as much as they did last time, which was a surprise.”

Central senior middle hitter Amada Lopez, who finished the night with six digs, said producing an effective cross-court defense was a struggle. 

“When they hit cross, they kept getting us with those,” Lopez said. “We kept watching the ball drop, or we weren’t there to get the ball.”

The Bobcats didn’t take the third set laying down. Trailing 15-11, they fought their way back, thanks to a six-point serving run by sophomore setter Yvette Sigelnski. Her two aces and four assists helped propel Central to a 17-15 lead. 

Central’s hitting and digging improved as well. They logged four kills and 16 digs in each of the first two sets. But they increased their totals in the third set with eight kills and 22 digs. Senior Priscilla Monjolo knocked down three kills in the third and sophomore Bethany Ulibarri had seven digs.

After a tense back-and-forth, the Stampede took advantage of multiple hitting errors by the Bobcats late in the set and pulled away with a 25-21 victory. 

Fairfax coach Victoria Hernandez was pleased with how the Stampede executed their game plan on offense and defense.

“I had my girls set up in a specific defense to kind of combat their tips and their hits across court,” Hernandez said. “So I think that worked really well in our favor. And we just talked about finding the open holes and putting the ball there.”

Despite losing their final home game of the season, Harris was proud of how her players handled several obstacles along the way. 

“We had to face a lot of adversity this season with not only roster changes, but coach changes,” Harris said. “They had to really be ready and willing to play multiple positions. So I think that we faced adversity pretty well this year.”

The Bobcats are currently 3-13 overall and 2-12 in the 5A Metro region. 

Central senior Janiah Gary, who contributed three kills, three digs, and a block, was all smiles despite her career with the Bobcats nearing its end.

“I feel like it was a difficult season with our coaches and everything.” Gary said. “But at the end of the day, we all did come together and play together. It came out to be fun.”

Central travels for its final regular-season match to face McClintock (14-2 overall, 12-2 5A Metro region) at 6 p.m. on Thursday. Fairfax (6-10 overall, 6-9 5A Metro region) travels to Metro Tech (8-7 overall, 7-6 5A Metro region) also at 6 p.m. on Thursday.