Lady Phoenix start State Tourney strong with victory
The goal for any team is to be playing their best at the end of the season, and it looks like the Sonoraville Lady Phoenix are doing exactly that.
After running through the Area 1-AAA Tournament last week to secure their fifth straight area crown, the Lady Phoenix carried that momentum over to Tuesday when they opened up the Class AAA State Tournament with a three-set home win over Coahulla Creek in impressive fashion.
Sonoraville ( 26- 22) came out strong against a Lady Colts team that they had seen on four separate occasions during the regular season, winning three of those. The first two sets featured several runs by Coahulla Creek, but every time the Lady Phoenix had an answer.
Sonoraville first-year head coach Xandy Green said her team just continued what they have been doing over the past few weeks.
“I feel like I say this every match recently, but we brought our A game tonight,“said Green. “The girls know when to get hot no doubt. The way we’re playing makes me very happy as a coach. The girls were excited all week so I knew their heads were in it, and every one of our girls showed up and shut (Coahulla Creek) down from the beginning.“
The first set was back-and-forth for a while before Sonoraville eventually earned a 25-23 advantage. They then came out strong in the second set before Coahulla Creek (17-19) made a run to get back in it. But Sonoraville answered and finished the set off with a 25-22 win.
The Lady Phoenix finished things off with their most dominant set of the night as they earned a 25-15 win.
Green said playing a team that her Lady Phoenix has seen multiple times during the regular season had both advantages and disadvantages, but the familiarity seemed to pay off in the end.
“I don’t think it’s a good thing to play a team that you’ve already played several times because you don’t know what you’re going to get on a certain night,“said Green. “But we were ready for their offensive attack and were able to work on that this week at practice. And Bree Steely and Gracen Hornbrook were both really on tonight with their serves. Especially Bree…she was hitting bullets. I think that put Coahulla Creek off their game, and they couldn’t do what they normally try to do.“
Steely led the way individually with 12 kills, four aces, seven assists and 12 digs. Hornbrook had a solid night as well with 25 assists, 10 kills and eight digs. Baylea Richards (20) and Kinsey Wilson (11) also had double-digit digs, Sommer Quinn had four kills and three blocks and Anna Trantham had four kills.
The Lady Phoenix now move on to the second round to face the winner of the Savannah at Redan first-round matchup. Sonoraville will host the winner on either Tuesday or Thursday.
Green said her team will prepare for their next opponent but continue to try and focus on improving themselves.
“I’ll do a little research on both teams and figure out what I can, but the biggest thing I’m going to tell the girls is to not worry about who we’re playing,“said Green.
“I want them to worry about us and playing our game. There are still some things we need to improve so we can play our best.“
The Lady Phoenix will be looking to advance to at least the third round for the fifth straight season.