Region tournaments to take place this weekend

WINDOW ROCK

With the regular season drawing to a close earlier this week, the 1A-, 2A- and 3A-North volleyball tournament will give some of the lower seeded teams a chance to qualify for next week’s Arizona state volleyball tournament.

The state tournament will start on Oct. 30 with the higher seeds in conference play-in tournament games hosting. The Round of 16 will start on Nov. 2 at various sites in the Phoenix metro area.

This weekend, St. Michael (1A) and Monument Valley (3A) will host the region tournaments on Saturday. In 2A, Greyhills Academy will host the semifinals and finals on Saturday with the winner of each tournament earning a state bid.

The regular season champs in each conference have a virtual lock at a state invite with Rock Point winning the 1A North and Tuba City claiming the 3A North crown.

On Tuesday night, the winner between Round Valley and St. Johns earned the nod as the 2A winner.

Last Saturday, the Pinon Lady Eagles upset Round Valley 16-25, 25-19, 20-25, 25-19, 15-4 to set up Tuesday’s winner-take-all match between Round Valley and St. Johns.

Pinon coach Nellie McCurtain said beating Round Valley was huge but it did start with a somber moment when the school retired former Lady Eagle standout Janiesa Peralto’s number. Peralto, who passed away May 29, helped the volleyball team win the school’s first state championship during the 2015 season.

“It was a very sad day for me as a coach,” McCurtain said. “She was a former all-stater that played a big role for the team.”

As for the match, McCurtain said Amaya Yazzie, the team’s middle blocker, went down with an ankle injury so she had to turn to freshman Ashanti Yazzie and Danielle Denny to fill in the void.

“I made a lineup change in the third set and Danielle did well on her serves,” she said. “She did really well as a front row blocker.”

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