No. 6 Salpointe beat No. 4 Greenway, 3-1 (25-23, 20-25, 25-21, 25-16) Wednesday night to win the 4A state championship held at Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix. As noted here first, the win breaks a 23-year drought from Southern Arizona in the “Big School” category.

Legendary Rincon/University head coach Juanita Kingston led the Rangers to a state championship in 1993 but the Rangers were unable to repeat the following year. Five other teams from Southern Arizona have tried to get over the hump since then:

 

SOUTHERN ARIZONA RUNNER-UP FINISHES

2014: Ironwood Ridge (Division II)

2008: Amphitheater (4A-II)

2004: Ironwood Ridge (4A)

2001: Catalina Foothills (4A)

1997: Sabino (4A)

1994: Rincon (4A)

 

Even more remarkable, Salpointe (33-8) had previously played for one state championship in girls’ volleyball and that was in 1970 – 47 years ago under Waldine Cormier. Current head coach Heather-Moore Martin has had a lot of personal success at the “lower divisions” before moving over to Salpointe from Catalina High School in 2014.

Moore-Martin led the Catalina girls to a D-III runner-up finish in 2011 and she also led the Catalina boys to back-to-back D-II championships in 2010 and 2011. She also took the Salpointe sand volleyball team to a D-I runner-up finish last year. Her championship this year in the 4A Conference solidifies her position has one of the best in the state.

Speaking of great coaching, Greenway (40-4) head coach Sarah Peterson has placed her name on the short list of coaches who have taken a team from a state championship in a lower division one year to a title match in a higher division the following year.

The Demons won the D-III state championship in straight sets last year and then moved up to the 4A Conference this year and the team hardly missed a beat, winning another 40 matches along the way. The core group of her graduating seniors won an incredible 128 matches in four years against only 18 losses.  There is no shame in one of those losses coming in a state championship to a team like Salpointe.

“I’m so proud of my team,” Peterson said. “They played great defense against a big team with big hitters. I’m super proud of them especially after moving up against these great teams. Rheanna (Earley) played one of the best matches of her career tonight and I can’t say enough about Jordyn Nelson and how well she played this year.”

Nelson finished with 41 assists on the night and Early controlled the outside with a game-high 25 kills against the Lancers. Early was almost unstoppable at important stages in the match and her play was key in the first two sets.

Up 19 to 16 in the first set, Early put down two big kills to increase the lead to 21-16. The score eventually worked to 23-20 in favor of Greenway but then came Salpointe standout junior Alanna Duarte.

Sophomore Alex Parkhurst scored to cut the lead down to 23-21 and then Duarte came alive and put down three straight kills to pace Salpointe to a 25-23 win to go up 1-0. Duarte finished the night with 17 kills and Parkhurst added 10 more but senior outside Maggie Schepelmann put down 20 kills to help combat Early. Salpointe junior setter Peyton Lewis had 57 assists.

Schepelmann had eight kills in the second set alone but Early recorded six as the Demons went on to take the set 25-20. It was a difficult set for the Lancers with three service errors and three net violations but the Demons took full advantage to draw even at 1-1.

Schepelmann put down three scores near the end of the third set to put the Lancers up 23-17 but the Demons were finding it more and more difficult to respond and Salpointe took the set 25-21 to go up 2-1.

The Lancers finished in the semifinal round last year and then finished runner-up in the sand season in the spring. Duarte feels that kind of experience, along with a talented squad, proved to be too much to stop.

“We came so close last year and then the success we had in sand followed that,” Duarte said. “It gave us the confidence we needed to close this one out.”

The fourth set proved to be too much for the Demons and the Lancers slowly built a 21-10 lead. Greenway had, indeed, stood tall and gave everything, just as Peterson described, but Salpointe just came coming. The Lancers extended the lead to 24-11 but the Demons showed one last impressive stand and reeled off five straight points to cut the Salpointe lead down to 24-16 but the hole was too deep and Salpointe took the deciding set 25-16.

“This is really surreal,” Duarte added. “It hasn’t hit me yet but when it does I’m not sure what I’ll do. When they started to come back at the end our coach told us to trust each other. She told us to work hard for each other.”

As mentioned before, Moore-Martin has experienced championships but this was her first with girls.

“These girls play for a pretty demanding coach,” Moore-Martin explained with an obvious smile on her face. “They worked towards this little by little. They put in the time and the effort. They were willing to play in extra tournaments and they made the commitment. It’s different coaching boys (to a championship) but the feeling is just the same.”

St. David won the 1A state championship on Saturday, giving Southern Arizona two state volleyball championships this year. Curiously, that hasn’t happened since 1989 when St. David won the 1A title and Willcox won the 2A championship.