ALA-Queen Creek. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

Salpointe struggled to maintain leads against a feisty ALA-Queen Creek squad but the Lancers still found ways to get things done when it mattered and that included a massive 6-0 run in the fourth set to help cap off another 4A championship Saturday night at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

 “It's volleyball in general,” Salpointe head coach Keith Rubio said on the runs. “It’s a momentum game and it swings either direction and most of it has to do with their confidence and once they run and start getting confident, the pendulum swings the other way, and we happen to be on the favorable ending,”

The Lancers won the first set 25-19 and the second set 25-23 but a 25-18 setback in the third set gave ALA-Queen Creek new life and the Patriots made the best of it in the fourth set, building a 17-14 lead in what could have been a drastic momentum shift in the match. Instead, a serve into the net seemingly gave the Lancers a spark and that was followed by a barrage of points, highlighted by a kill from Kate Mobley, a block from Ivy Allen, an ace from Kiki Muehlebach and another block from Mobley. A 17-14 deficit, and the threat of a tied up match, turned into a 20-17 lead and the Lancers went on to take the set 25-22.

Mobley earned the MVP award after the match but the first set was a team effort with the Lancers giving up a 9-5 lead and then a 14-10 lead with the Patriots battling back to cut the lead down again to 15-14.

“Our girls continued to push each other and we never let up,” head coach Jodi Proctor said. “Every time Salpointe pulled the lead, we fought back.”

Salpointe went on to build a 22-14 lead in that first set but that was cut back down again to 22-18, but a kill from Natalia Solomon and a block Natalie Mobley turned the Patriots back again for the 25-19 win. In the second set, a 10-7 lead turned into an 11-10 deficit and the Patriots used kills from London Wood and Tatum Riggs to help maintain a 16-14 lead. But, once again, the Lancers went on a run to take a 22-18 lead, only to have the Patriots cut it back down to 22-21. A kill from Mia Bartfalvi helped bring the lead back to 24-21 but the Patriots refused to go away and the Lancers help a slim 24-23 lead until Muehlebach put down a block for the 25-23 victory to go up 2-0.

The third set played out evenly until the Patriots built an 18-15 lead but Kate Mobley scored and then came up with a block to cut the lead down to 18-17. There would be no coming back this time with ALA-Queen Creek closing out on a 7-1 run to take it 25-18.

Kate Mobley and Solomon collected 10 kills each for Salpointe and Allen scored eight. Caitlin Hurley had 19 assists and Callie Hutchens added 18. Reagen Burgle pulled out 26 digs. Sara Bowcutt had a match-high 12 kills and Riggs had 10. McKenna Kehoe had 35 assists and 17 digs and Miley Hakes had 33 digs.

ALA-Queen Creek loses 12 players to graduation including Riggs, who will be playing Beach Volleyball for Arizona.

“It will be a little bit of a rebuilding year but we have a lot of young girls coming up the program too,” Proctor added. Proctor was a standout volleyball player at ASU and she just completed her second year leading the Patriots. This was the first championship appearance for the program

The Lancers also lose 12 seniors and the program will be moving up to the 5A Conference next year. Rubio retired from New Mexico State in 2021 and he is the brother of former Arizona indoor coach Dave Rubio.

He see’s little difference in the ability of his high school athletes and his college athletes due to the high level of competition but the outcome for this year was still in question even though most favored his program to take it all.

“Now you really don't. I mean, it was like towards the end of the season,” Rubio said on when he had a feeling this was his year. “I thought we weren't really that focused or committed to winning a championship, which I was a little concerned and again, you just never know. Then they kind of kind of believed and stepped up and made some big wins.”

This was the fourth championship for Salpointe.

Kate Mobley was named MVP. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)