Mesa High escaped the toughest region in girls volleyball this year thanks to realignment. Having to face Xavier, Hamilton, Desert Vista, Red Mountain and Chandler twice each of the last two years in the 5A-I Fiesta Region was a heavy burden for the Jackrabbits. All five of those foes qualified for the 16-team state tournament.

As one might expect more success may be on the way with that region dissolved. Mesa ran its 2011 record to 8-3 Tuesday night with a sweep of Skyline High, 25-12, 25-18 and 25-13 at Skyline.

"We didn't play with a lot of enthusiasm today," Mesa coach Amy Strawn said. "We can play better than we did. We talked about not letting down. We didn't play very well."

Still, Mesa kept up a good streak just eight days into the season. The Jackrabbits split power-point games with Mountain Pointe (loss) and Mesquite (win) midweek last week to open the year.  The loss to Mountain Pointe was tight 25-22, 25-21, 26-24. Last weekend they were 6-2 at the House of Payne Invitational at Chandler High, reaching the semis of the gold division. They lost in the semis to eventual champ, Desert Ridge.

"it''s been a while since we got that far in the gold division of a tournament," Strawn said. "We won all our matches in two games. We played pretty well."

Against Skyline Tuesday, a lot of hitting and passing errors by Skyline benefitted Mesa in taking a sweep. Mesa still outhit Skyline, defended better and blocked better. But Mesa's play wasn't crisp for long periods. The most glaring downside to its overall play were 16 service errors in the three games.

Skyline coach Nancy Corea tried often with timeouts in each game to settle her team down after mistakes or runs by Mesa. It worked a couple times, but not enough to make a strong run at winning any of the games.

"Nancy's been at this a long time," Strawn said. "She knows what she's doing. She got them back on track several times. They're not going to give up."

Mesa outside hitter Kelcee Munk led the Jackrabbits with 10 kills. Leading Skyline , which dropped to 1-3 on the season, was Rachel Metz with six kills. Skyline next plays on Wednesday at Red Mountain.

Mesa is idle until Friday when it and Skyline compete in the 20th annual Westwood Tournament of Champions Invitational. Mesa hosts Pool B of the 36-team tourney, which contains seeded Gilbert High. Skyline hosts Pool D, which boasts seeded Hamilton.

 

 

 

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