Despite its first loss since Nov. 1, Clarkdale-Jerome School can take consolation in being the top seed in the Verde Valley League tournament, which the Mingus Rams will open at home at 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23.
“Our girls actually didn’t play too bad,” head coach Lynda Chavez said. “But since volleyball is such a momentum game, when that momentum shifts, they sometimes have a hard time recovering.”
Without eighth-grader and main setter Felicia Bueno at Big Park Community School, the Coyotes’ service game took the momentum and kept it, overwhelming the Mingus Rams for their first loss in straight sets.
“Some of them cried,” Chavez said after the loss. “So it probably was kind of a good thing to release that pressure of winning.
“Last year, they went undefeated, so I think for this group, it was a good thing. It is a younger team.”
Seventh-grader Sadie Backus filled in, but despite a 7-1 lead to open the Oct. 8 regular-season finale at Big Park, Coyotes’ eighth-grader Morgan Fritz held serve for nine straight points to regain the lead on the way to the 25-22, 25-19 win.
“They had a game where they kind of, like, fell apart,” Chavez said. “You have a player that’s not there, and there’s that competitive edge that you miss. It didn’t look very good, but Sadie did a tremendous job.”
Chavez will be calling up three seventh-graders from assistant coach Lacy Brown’s B team to play in the two-day, double-elimination tournament at Clarkdale, whose eighth-place opponent was still to be determined through makeup matches Wednesday, Oct. 21.
“We know we have the potential to play really well and to win games,” she said. “They’ve just got to have it together.”
For the full story and tournament schedule, please see the Wednesday, Oct. 21, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
