Shelby Evans is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Cactus Shadows High School for AZPreps365

SCOTTSDALE – Cactus Shadows beat Prescott in round one of the 4A state championship Thursday night.

Cactus Shadows will compete in the quarterfinals on Monday when they travel to play No.1-seed Salpointe Catholic at 6 p.m.

“We’re going to have to bring our best, and hopefully they do, too, and it’s a fun game,” Cactus Shadows coach Jeff Dumbrell said.

The Falcons were clinical against the Badgers, sweeping them 25-14, 25-18, 25-17. 

Senior Karease Broeker and junior Erin Ward had eight kills each. Cactus Shadows was most aggressive on their serve with 16 aces. 

“They did an amazing job of serving us off the court,” Prescott coach Bernie Bernard said. “I tip my hat to them with that. They were the better team tonight.” 

Prescott opened the match by leading 7-4 in the first set, but Cactus Shadows capitalized on a Badgers service error by going on an 8-0 run to lead 18-8. 

Senior Reesa Witzig hit six aces. The second set wrapped up with the Falcons scoring a 9-0 run with three aces from Witzig.

She took over the Falcons' serve at 23-17 in the third. After a kill from Claire Albaugh, Witzig hammered the game-winning ace. 

“I usually just try to focus on one skill and then try to execute that,” Witzig said. “When I do that, it usually goes well, and when it does I get really excited with my team.”

The Falcons had a lot to celebrate on Thursday night. After the match, coach Dumbrell handed out gifts to seniors Gabby Procopio and Karease Broeker. Broeker, a middle blocker and opposite hitter, celebrated getting 145 career blocks and 500 career kills during the match, and libero Gabby Procopio reached 1,000 career digs.

“Gabby got a shovel, Karease got little kids blocks and then an arrow for her kills,” Dumbrell said. 

Cactus Shadows came into the match from the Desert Sky region ranked No. 8 in the championship bracket. They had not faced Prescott, the No. 9 seed from the Grand Canyon region, in regular season play.

Prescott’s Ruby Jensen was neutralized by the Falcons defense. Heading into the tournament she had 374 kills. Cactus Shadows kept her to 11.  

“We just looked at her stats,” Dumbrell said. “I saw that they set her more than anybody, and we have been focusing our practices since we’ve known that on stopping outsides.” 

Jensen’s high school volleyball career ended with Thursday’s loss. She will be playing at the University of Wyoming next fall. 

The Prescott team stayed huddled in the middle of the Cactus Shadows gym for 10 minutes after the game. They shared the private end of their season as movement surrounded them: The Falcons took down the net and put away the chairs, and parents mingled as they waited to congratulate the team. 

“Some of the juniors after the game were just saying how they wished they could have done it for us seniors,” Jensen said. “But, I truly believe that they did do it for us throughout the whole season and it really added up to this night.” 

There were six seniors on the team that Bernard has coached since their freshman year. He hopes that volleyball taught them at least a few life lessons.

“We dealt with adversity off the court in terms of keeping our head up and learning from things that we face off the court,” Bernard said. “You can’t really tell that on the court, the things that these girls fought through.”