By Rebecca Daly
Staff Writer
Tuesday night’s head-to-head matchup between the top two 6A Fiesta teams was explosive. Queen Creek kept its No. 1 region spot by coming out on top with a 3-1 win over Highland on the road in the Athletes Unlimited Game of the Week.
This was the second meeting between the two this season, and Queen Creek was victorious in both, handing Highland its only two losses this season. Highland is now 12-2, and Queen Creek is 9-5.
Highland, led by Head Coach Tait Neilson dominated the first set until Queen Creek made a comeback to tie the score up at 20-20. The teams went back and forth until Highland sophomore outside and opposite hitter Lila Ellsworth finished off the set with two kills for the 26-24 set win.
Ellsworth is ranked 20th in the state for kills with 320, in addition to all of the kills she had Tuesday night.
“Lila’s a stud and we needed to be able to manage her, and both their right sides can reel and reel on that side, and we weren’t able to stop them in the first set. Then we started touching them, and then we started blocking them,” Queen Creek Head Coach Erica Crismon said.
The next three sets were very back and forth but ultimately, Queen Creek was able to gain momentum by the end of each. The score of the second set was 25-21, the third set was 27-25, and the fourth and final set was 25-18.
Both teams put on a show, keeping everyone in the bleachers on the edge of their seats as both sides tried to keep themselves in the game.
This week's Athletes Unlimited Player of the Game is Junior outside hitter Madisyn Crnjac. She has over 250 kills this season. Her attacking skills stood out on the court, helping bring energy for the rest of the team to be successful.
“Madi is relentless. She really wants to learn and grow and she’s really coachable. She takes feedback and actually uses it. She's a force on the outside and when she’s good, we’re good” Crimson said.
Crnjac is verbally committed to the University of South Carolina to play indoor volleyball and is a large part of the team culture the Bulldogs constitute. She knows that taking pointers from her coach will overall benefit the team.
“We talk about the seams, we talk about the defense, we talk about what we see during the game, not just during timeouts or after the game. It's constant feedback we give to each other and we're all open to it,” Crnjac said.
Other players to point out are middle hitters Kiana Landers and Haleina Bowers, who were making plays with blocks and kills throughout the whole game. Defensive specialist Tatum Riggs also made some great offensive plays.
“We’ve been talking about keeping our energy consistent. I think every player on the court contributed tonight. Our outsides were swinging really well, we involved our middles a ton, I thought our setter ran a really good game,” Crismon said.
Holding the No. 1 spot in the region, the Bulldogs are eager for the postseason that is right around the corner. However, Crismon reminded the girls that there are still three games left before that.
“Region’s not over, so let's not run before we can walk. We're really just focused on practice tomorrow and what we can do in practice to get better. So, we're trying to keep them in the moment, one day at a time,” Crismon said.
Comentarios