Lindsey Ridgway is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Gilbert Christian High School for AZPreps365.com

Gilbert Christian's girls volleyball team won its first region match since Sept. 15 on Thursday night, sweeping  the Coolidge Coyotes,  25-6,25-12,25-10.

The first set flew by with the Knights going on multiple scoring runs, most notably outscoring the Coyotes 12-2 due to multiple kills by the Knights, including freshman outside hitter Lillie Duitsman. The Coyotes were unable to come back from the deficit, falling in set one ,25-6.

Looking to break through in region play, Duitsman said that despite being a young team, the Knights are determined to keep improving. 

“We know that we need to come on strong and stay strong the whole time,” Duitsman said. “When we know we are down, it is just about getting the point, but being up gives us that extra confidence.”

The Coyotes (4-3) had the advantage of serving first in set two but despite that were unable to gain many points as the Knights (6-6) out scored them 7-0 to begin the set. Coolidge was able to secure points against Gilbert Christian due to errors but struggled  with errors of their own and back to back kills by Duitsman and sophomore opposite Alexia Heyn. Errors overcame the Coyotes and they lost in set two, 25-12.

Coyotes coach  Diego Bojorquez had a primarily junior varsity team this week as his varsity squad was at leadership camp. Despite that, Bojorquez said this can only help prepare his team for the rest of region play.   

“They(JV players) played really well and really strong.” Bojorquez said. “But when it comes to our varsity players… the talent is there and we have the ability, I just need them to hone in and get prepared for all these regional games coming up.”

Heading into set three, Gilbert Christian was once again dominant, building an early 6-2 lead.  Freshman outside hitter Sienna Cathey led the fight with four kills followed by Duitsman with two of her own as well as multiple aces by sophomore defensive specialist Addison Steil. The Knights continued to outscore the Coyotes due to errors and closed out the set on a Coyotes error, 25-10.

Gilbert Christian coach Alyssa Misuraca focused on pushing her team's comfortability with each other in practice this week to help lead to their win. 

“Even when it's a situation where we wouldn’t normally run something or run that play, we were comfortable doing that tonight,” Misuraca said. “If we do our jobs on our side, it doesn’t matter who is on the other side of the net.”

Gilbert Christian will play  at Florence at 6 p.m. Monday. 

Coolidge will play tonight at Wickenburg at 6 p.m.