St. Michael netters top rival Rock Point in four sets

ST. MICHAELS, Ariz.

The volleyball rivalry between St. Michael and Rock Point is still going strong.

The two clubs clashed last week in a key 1A North Region game at St. Michael High School with the Lady Cardinals winning in four competitive sets. The set scores were 26-24, 25-23, 22-25, 25-23.

“We were ready for them,” St. Michael coach Reynelda Terry said. “Rock Point has either been No. 1 or 2 in our region the last few years and we knew that this was gonna be an important game for us.”

With the four-set win, St. Michael clinched the region title in the eight-team league. The Lady Cardinals improved their record to 14-2 overall and 7-0 in region play after defeating Rough Rock in three sets on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals will close out the regular season tonight at Shonto Prep as St. Michael will earn the No. 1 seed for next week’s regional tournament.

Rock Point, meanwhile, enters its final game of the season with Dishchii’bikoh with an 8-9 record and a 4-2 in region play after Tuesday night’s win over Basis Flagstaff.

In last Friday’s game, St. Michael pulled out the first two sets winning 26-24 and 25-23 before Rock Point extended the match to a fourth set with a 25-22 win. In the final set, the Cardinals faced some adversity after losing senior hitter Alana Yazzie during a rally when she came down awkwardly in the back row.

“She came down too much on one leg and her knee gave out,” the St. Michael coach said.

Rock Point coach Kyle Arthur expressed his sympathy while adding that her injury was unfortunate.

“She’s a great player and we hope that she recovers fast,” he said. “We’re all passionate about the sport and we hate to see that happen.”

In the highly competitive match, the Arthur-coached team outhit St. Michael 44 to 37 in kills. Rock Point also finished with eight aces while the Cardinals registered five.

After trailing 8-4 to start set one, Rock Point worked its way back into the contest and led 23-22 following a kill by senior outside hitter Caleigh White, who finished with 11 kills.

St. Michael, however, got the serve back with a middle attack from senior Sariah Lopez (10 kills), and they reached game point (24-23) with a kill from senior Leonna Slim.

The two clubs traded hitting errors before Slim served out the match with an ace for a 26-24 win.

The second set played out the same way as the first with Rock Point trailing 10-4. The Cougars finally found a rhythm in the middle of the set when they went on a 5-0 run as they tied it at 14-all behind a pair of kills from junior outside hitter Pepper Pete, who finished with a game-best 15 kills.

With neither team refusing to lose, the set was tied six more times with the last one coming at 23-all. The Cardinals capped the set on a 2-0 rally with Lopez serving an ace followed by a net violation by Rock Point.

“What we tell the girls is when we hit 20 points, we need to be aggressive,” Terry said. “So, when we get to 20, that is when we need to start pushing because every point counts. That is where we need to be aggressive to finish it out.”

Arthur says the first two sets were a tossup, but he acknowledged the importance of staying composed in those waning moments.

“We’re a well-coached team, but at the end of the day when it comes to really close margin games, we need to trust our training,” he said. “We need to stay compose and just execute. Mentally, I think we made too many mistakes. We can’t afford to make mistakes and expect to win.”

But in the third set it was St. Michael making those mistakes as Rock Point reeled off three straight points for a 23-20 cushion. The Cardinals closed that gap to 23-22, but Rock Point got a pair of big swings from White to send the match into the fourth set.

The Cougars carried that momentum into the next set as White added three kills for an 8-0 cushion. A slew of hitting errors from Rock Point, however, changed the complexion of the match as St. Michael overtook the Cougars.

The Cardinals used a 4-0 run to close Rock Point’s lead down to 14-12. Later in the set, St Michael senior Chanelle Hale served across seven straight points for a 21-16 cushion.

Following that rally, Yazzie went down with an injury as the game was delayed for 10-plus minutes with St. Michael leading 21-18.

Rock Point made one final push and tied the set at 23-all, but St. Michael finished off the game with a kill each from Lopez and sophomore Taylor Yazzie.

On Tuesday, the Arizona Interscholastic Association released the latest statewide ranking with St. Michael dropping three spots to No. 7 after splitting its freedom games with Hopi on Saturday afternoon.

Rock Point, meanwhile, checked in at No. 19 as the Cougars’ only hope for a playoff spot is winning next week’s 1A North Region tournament as the 1A state bracket is set for 16 teams.

“The rankings don’t tell the whole story because we’ve been battled-tested by a lot of tough teams,” Arthur said. “We’ve been tested over and over, and we overcame some of those tough teams.

“I know the girls really wanted to win, but we just have to regroup for the region tournament,” he added.

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