Nike Tournament of Champions Southwest

Oct. 4-5: Arizona Athletic Grounds

 

Some 84 teams from Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Washington are taking part in the Nike Tournament of Champions Southwest (TOC) held at the Arizona Athletic Grounds in Mesa on Friday and Saturday.

According to MaxPreps, the top-ranked team in the country in Mater Dei will join No. 7 Cornerstone Christian of San Antonio. 41 teams from Arizona are also slated to play along with 6A No. 1 Xavier Prep, 6A No. 4 Sunnyslope, 5A No. 1 Sunrise Mountain, 5A No. 3 Horizon, 5A No. 4 Centennial, 5A No. 5 Canyon View, 4A No. 1 Flagstaff, 4A No. 2 Salpointe, 4A No. 5 Mica Mountain, 3A No. 1 Valley Christian and 3A No. 4 Monument Valley.

Mica Mountain will take on Mater Dei on Friday as will 5A No. 11 Hamilton. Salpointe will play Cornerstone Christian on Friday as will 5A No. 6 Notre Dame. Salpointe beat Mica Mountain 3-2 on Sept. 24 to open up 4A Kino Region play. The Thunderbolts were in the 4A Gila Region last year.

Mica Mountain faced Salpointe without the services of Safford transfer Hannah Schade and the two teams will meet again on Oct. 28 to end the regular season. 4A No. 7 Ironwood Ridge moved from the 5A Conference to the 4A Kino Region and the Nighthawks are also competing in the TOC.

Mica Mountain head coach Amy Johnson leads Southern Arizona with 793 career victories with boys and girls combined. Ironwood Ridge head coach Bill Lang leads Southern Arizona with 561 victories on the girl’s side and Johnson leads Southern Arizona with 347 wins on the boy’s side.

“We had a really fast paced practice yesterday, because I know they're going to run things a lot faster than we've seen like some of the other California teams that we saw a couple weeks ago (LA Jolla Tourney),” Johnson said on facing Mater Dei right away.

“We just have to focus on just our side of the net. We need to pass the ball well. We need to serve well and just run everything faster. Learn a few things and compete. I mean, we know they're good. They've got a lot of D-I commits, but I just want my team to get out there and compete,” Johnson added.

Gigi Miller (5) and Aubrey Necas go up for the block on Walden Grove standout Eleena Carrasco. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

The Thunderbolts swept Walden Grove 3-0 (25-6, 25-10, 25-15) Thursday night at home and the team will leave for Mesa Friday morning. Schade had nine aces in the match and she complimented team kill leaders Aubrie Fellmeth, Aubrey Necas and Soso Okpara. Senior setter Addison Andrews has one more target in Schade and senior libero Jayden Nugent controls the back row but every facet will need to be on target when they face Mater Dei.

“She's (Schade) just a spark plug for us,” Johnson added. “She plays great defense. She can hit. She's a great blocker. I think she's going to fill lot of the holes that I think that we were missing.”

Amy Johnson. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)