Mountain View put together over 600 yards of offense Thursday night to get past Sunnyside 52-8. The win pushed the Mountain Lions to 2-1 on the year while the Blue Devils fell to 2-2. The win also avenged a 46-20 loss to Sunnyside last year that ultimately prevented the Mountain Lions from making the playoffs.
Mountain View swept district rival Marana 3-0 (25-19, 26-24, 25-15) Wednesday night to improve to 6-5 overall and 1-3 in regular season matches. The win came one day after taking power-program Salpointe to five sets at home before dropping the fifth set 15-8.
There will be a new champion at the Flowing Wells Volleyball Imitational this year, guaranteed. Catalina Foothills won the invitational last year and the year but Sahuarita, the 2015 runner-up, is still in the field.
Lang is already on the fabled Mt. Rushmore (in terms of wins) of volleyball coaches from Southern Arizona along with Juanita Kington (Rincon/University), Sandy Novak (Sahuaro), Melva Lundy (Canyon del Oro) and Heather Moore-Martin (Green Fields, Catalina & Salpointe). Kingston and Lundy have retired while Novak is still coaching at Sahuaro and Moore-Martin is at Salpointe.
Sahuaro went undefeated to capture the championship of the TUSD Girls Volleyball Invitational held at Palo Verde High School of Friday and Saturday. Sahuaro withstood a difficult semifinal match against Rincon/University before defeating Sabino 2-0 (25-14, 25-15) in the final match.
Desert Ridge has been on a major roll. The Jaguars have finished with at least 10 wins a year since 2010 and 11 wins since 2012 but it doesn’t seem to matter that the Jaguars finished runner-up in the state’s highest division last year, the team feels they have to prove themselves all over again.
Canyon del Oro scored an even 144 to get past Rincon/University (154) and Flowing Wells (216) at the Oro Valley Country Club on Thursday. Trevor Gregoire and Lance Picton paced the Dorados with a 1-under 35. Rincon standout Dallan Graybill also shot a 35.
BOYS: Salpointe 37, Canyon del Oro 45, Vista Grande 48
1: Johnny Desanti, Vista Grande: 17:09.77
2: Isaiah Guevara, Canyon del Oro: 17:10.23
3: Johnny Hernandez, Salpointe: 18:50.19
GIRLS: Salpointe 36, Vista Grande 45, Canyon del Oro DNS
1: Ana Alvarez-Tostado, Salpointe: 20:12.20
2: Zoe Delgado, Salpointe: 20:18.46
3: Katie Bruno, Canyon del Oro: 21:59.85
I went 13-0 in my picks for Southern Arizona last week and here are my 26 picks for this Friday night. Several of the games are toss-ups at this point. We should get a clear picture on where teams stand after week three.
Ironwood Ridge beat Marana 62-42 Friday night in a game defined by turnovers, long runs and seemingly little defense. I guess one would have had to see the game in person to realize Marana (0-1) is not as bad as the final score indicates and Ironwood Ridge (1-0) is not quite as good as the 62 points indicates.
2016 Junior Sunbelt Classic
McAlester, Oklahoma: June 10-15
Canyon del Oro standout Michael Santorelli went 1-for-3 against Texas with two stolen bases and drew a walk against Oklahoma and was also hit by pitch in the game.
The 2nd Annual GARB Athletics/OC Sports Southern Arizona High School All-Star Series presented by the Kino Baseball League concluded Friday night at Catalina Foothills High School.
About four dozen baseball standouts from Southern Arizona took part in the Division III-V futures game with Team Teal coming away with a 9-2 win over Team Copper. Former Desert Christian head coach Grant Hopkins led Team Copper and Catalina head coach Shane Folsom was in charge of Team Teal.