Basha takes down Corona in five games to open tournament

November 2, 2010 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365



Basha did what others haven't in the past fiive years. The Bears handed  Corona del Sol a 5A-I first-round state girls volleyball  tournament defeat, coming back from a 2-1 deficit to beat the Aztecs, 25-27, 25-21, 12-25, 25-14, 15-6 at Basha High.

Basha advances to Thursday's quarterfinals where it will take on No. 3 seed Hamilton. Hamilton defeated  No. 14 Maryvale in three games on Tuesday.

Basha (27-9), which lost in its final regular season match to Corona last Thursday, 3-0, took a little time finding its stride. That didn't really happen until game 4, but it happened with a vengeance.

"I think they were a little edgy and focused," Basha coach Jim Kann said of his sixth-seeded squad."Corona is a great  team. They went from 11 to the finals last year."

Corona (27-14), however, was young this year and Basha took advantage, particularly in games 4 and 5.

After absorbing a 25-12 loss in the third game, Basha took control of game 4 with a 7-0 that turned a 5-4 deficit to a 12-4 lead. Basha got its offense going, the defense tightened and it block improved through the end of the match.

"We were just stronger at the end," Kann said, "We figured out how to defend them and took them on at the net."

Basha senior hitter Madison Serrano led the Bears with 15 kills, junior Kehau Baker had 14 kills and McKayla Ferris and Sydnee Arnson collected nine kills apiece.. Baker added 19 assists.

Defensively Alyssa Sutton with 28 digs and Serrano with 26 frustrated Corona hitters in the final two games.

Basha played that regular season finale last Thursday without injured middles Ferris and Megan Byrnes.  Both were back in the lineup Tuesday and it certainly helped the Bears' cause.

"We're really young, just two seniors this year," Corona del Sol coach Ben Maxfield said. "Mentally in those lasat two games we kind of turned it off. They started digging balls, and blocking and it frustrated us."

Junior Kasey Kiefer led Corona with 13 kills and Jamie Burt added eight. Aztecs setter Cassie Fish hd 13 digs and 31 assists.