Matadors beat Yavapai for Region I title
The Arizona Western volleyball team lost only two conference matches during the regular season. Both were to Yavapai.
Friday night at home, the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference champion Matadors got their revenge in a meeting that meant far more than the previous ones, defeating the Roughriders in four sets in the NJCAA Division I Region I Final.
“We lost to them two times because it was at their house,” sophomore outside hitter Yeny Montoya Murillo said. “Now it’s our house.”
AWC (21-5 overall) dominated the first set to the tune of a 25-10 victory, used a late run to come away with a 25-21 victory in the second set, and after dropping the third set 19-25, grabbed the lead midway through the fourth set en route to a 25-20 victory.
It was the fifth region title in the last seven years for the Matadors, who won it in the final three seasons under Jason Smith (201214) and now twice in four years under Lorayne Chandler (also 2016).
“It feels just as good as the first one did,” Chandler said. “It’s awesome.”
The last three times AWC has won the region title, it has gone on to make nationals. In order to do that this year, the Matadors will have to beat the still-to-be-determined Region 5 champ — on the road — in the District D Final on Tuesday.
“Everybody wants to go to nationals and this is the first part for going there,” Montoya Murillo said. “We do an excellent job working hard every single practice and this is the result of that.”
Montoya Murillo, who had a team-high 16 kills to go along with 12 digs Friday, was named the Region I Tournament Most Valuable Player.
Freshman middle block-