Arizona state volleyball championships
Defending state champs Tuba City earns No. 7 seed
(Times file photo)
Members of the Tuba City bench celebrate a point won during the championship game of the Division III state volleyball match last season in Prescott, Ariz. Tuba City, the defending Division III state volleyball champs, earned the No. 7 seed for this year’s tournament, which will take place at Tim’s Toyota Center in Prescott, Ariz. The Lady Warriors will square with No. 10 seed Greenway on Nov. 8.
By Quentin Jodie
Navajo Times
WINDOW ROCK, Nov. 1, 2013
(Times file photo)
Tuba City, the defending Division III state volleyball champs, earned the No. 7 seed for this year’s tournament, which will take place at Tim’s Toyota Center in Prescott, Ariz The Lady Warriors will square with No. 10 seed Greenway on Nov. 8.
On Friday, the Arizona Interscholastic Association released all the state volleyball brackets and placed Barlow’s team as the No. 7 seed.
Last season, the Lady Warriors had a breakout year and captured its first state crown in volleyball with a senior dominated team. Tuba City opens this year’s tournament with No. 10 Greenway next Friday at noon inside Tim’s Toyota Center in Prescott, Ariz.
“This is going to be a tough tournament but I think the brackets is really lopsided,” Barlow said. “The power ranking was real crazy this year because I thought there were some other teams that deserved to be in the tournament.”
In particular, Barlow said Flagstaff Coconino was one of the quality teams that got left out. As for their placement in the bracket, he felt that their side of draw has at least four state contenders.
“You know Flagstaff, Safford and Seton Catholic are going to be tough,” he said. “It’s going to be a challenge to get through our bracket but we feel like we have something to prove so we’re just going to take it one game at a time and play our game.”
If Tuba City gets by Greenway, the Warriors might meet No. 2 Safford in the next round, which would be a rematch of last year’s state championship game. Safford plays No. 15 Empire for its first round game.
Flagstaff, which moved down a classification, is paired up with No. 14 Payson in the opening round and the winner of that match will play the survivor between No. 6 Seton Catholic and No. 11 Florence.
On the other side of the bracket, No. 4 seed Monument Valley will play No. 13 Holbrook.
“We’re really happy with where were at,” Monument Valley coach Rennell Gilmore said. “We were thinking that we would get the No. 5 seed but Cactus lost their last game of the year so we moved up.”
Gilmore called the bottom half of the bracket brutal but she still considers their side challenging since they’ll be contending with top-seeded Snowflake and Cactus.
“Anything can happen,” she said. “There is no more second chances so we need to keep our girls on their toes.”
In other tournament news, the Pinon Lady Eagles and the Ganado Lady Hornets earned the No. 14 and No. 15 seed in the Division IV bracket.
Pinon will play No. 3 seed Sedona Red Rock while the Hornets will spar with No. 2 seed Veritas Prep. Both games are scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. on Nov. 7.
In Division V, the Shonto Prep Grizzlies will open its first state appearance with Glendale Prep at Tim’s Toyota Center on Nov. 7 at 10 a.m. The Grizzles earned the No. 12 seed despite winning its sectional with a 7-0 record.
Also in Division V, the Red Mesa Lady Redskins made the tournament as the No. 15 seed and they’ll play No. 2 seed Desert Christian at 8 a.m. on Nov. 7.