Rock Point skips final day of Joe City Invite; Lady Cougars have good showing in pool play

JOSEPH CITY, Ariz. – The Rock Point volleyball team left the Joseph City Invitational with a lot of what ifs.

The Lady Cougars played in Friday’s pool play action, but in respect of Saturday’s solar eclipse they skipped the bracket portion of the two-day tournament.

Despite not playing on Saturday, the two-time defending 1A state champs finished with a 4-1 record in pool play action, losing their only match to Kingman Academy on Friday.

The 2A school went on to play Williams in the championship game Saturday night with Williams winning the best of three sets.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t be there on Saturday,” Rock Point coach Kyle Arthur said. “I’m constantly reminded that we could have played in the championship game because we were right up there with Williams and Kingman Academy.”

That is where the ‘what ifs,’ comes in to play as Arthur pondered on whether his team could have won their matches with those two schools on Saturday.

“Unfortunately, we won’t know that,” he said. “But we left the tournament with high hopes. We took what we wanted, and we had good games and we’re going to continue to use that.”

In pool play, Rock Point beat Desert Christian, El Capitan, Hopi and Williams.

“The Williams and El Capitan coach did find out that we weren’t playing on Saturday, and they wondered why,” he said. “I explained it to them, and they were bummed that we couldn’t play because they wanted to play us again.”

Nevertheless, Arthur expects to see those two teams during the super regional tournament that starts next week on Oct. 24 with the higher seeded teams hosting the opening round.

The second-round games will be played on Oct. 26 at the higher seeds with the semifinals and finals to be played at Rehoboth Christian High School on Saturday, Oct. 28 with St. Michael being the tourney host.

“No doubt, we’re going to meet El Captain or Williams in our super regional tournament next week,” Arthur said. “But I think at this point everybody is going to be a threat. Ash Fork is wanting to give us another game because we did go five sets with them.

“We went three sets with Grand Canyon and I’m sure they have a game plan for us,” he added. “It’s come to a point to where nobody wants us to get that opportunity to get back into the state championship so whether the girls like it or not any team will bring their ‘A’ game.”

Arthur said 1A region rival St. Michael and Red Mesa are also a threat to challenge for the title at next week’s super regional tournament.

The winner of the tournament will get an automatic bye into the state playoffs as the Arizona Interscholastic Association will seed the 16-team 1A bracket following the four super regional tournaments.

As of Tuesday, Rock Point was the area’s highest ranked team at No. 8 while St. Michael is at No. 17 and Red Mesa at No. 28.

Arthur said there is an incentive for St. Michael and Red Mesa to win the super regional tournament since they are outside the top 16 rankings.

“If they don’t move up to the top 16 anytime soon, they would have to win the super regional to get an opportunity to play in the state tournament,” he said.

As for its state ranking, Arthur said his club is not getting the respect it deserves.

“I feel like we should be ranked higher,” he said. “If anything, I think being No. 5 is the spot at where we should be at. But we’re going to battle and fight for that state championship again no matter what seed we get.”

The 1A state playoffs begins on Oct. 31 with the top 8 seeds hosting the first-round games. The tournament will shift to Coronado High School in Scottsdale, Arizona for the quarterfinals and semifinals on Friday, Nov. 3.

The 1A state championship game will be played Saturday, Nov. 4 at Coronado High.

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