The Camp Verde Middle School Cowboys finished the 2012 season in third place in the middle school volleyball regional championships.
The championships were held Friday, Oct. 26, through Saturday, Oct. 27, at Big Park Community School in the Village of Oak Creek.
With 12 wins and two losses in the regular season, the Cowboys placed third after a series of three tournament wins and one loss at the championship tournament. The Big Park Coyotes were the champions, taking the first-place seed. The Coyotes finished the regular season with 13 wins and one loss. The Clarkdale-Jerome Mingus Rams took second place at the tournament, finishing the regular season with 11 wins and three losses.
The Cowboys first game was played on Friday night against Oak Creek School.
“The girls came into the game with the mind-set like they already won the game before playing the game,” CVMS Head Coach Shelley Sarkesian said. “So it was a frustrating first game, but they played hard and played really well.”
Oak Creek took the lead early in the first set as they took advantage of miscommunication on Camp Verde’s side of the net. The score was 3 to 10, and Camp Verde continued to struggle with hitting the net, getting the ball over the net and hitting the ball out.
Marisa Presmyk served an ace and good sets by Auli Hanks and digs by Katrina Esparza allowed the Cowboys to catch up 12-17, Oak Creek.
Neija Garner hit an ace which was followed by a point off of a Hanks dig, a kill by Esparza and points by Presmyk and Jordan Hudspeth after a couple of long rallies.
The score was 18-24 with Oak Creek still in the lead.
Esparza then started to serve. The Cowboys scored eight points from her serves — three of them were aces.
The Cowboys won the set 26-24.
The Cowboys dominated the second
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Oct. 31 issue of the Camp Verde Journal.
