Kofa ends season with win over Hawks
Wait and see if it's playoff-bound
The Kofa volleyball team ended the regular season with a 25-19, 25-19, 25-16 victory at home against Gila Ridge on Wednesday.
Despite being swept in all three sets of the match, Hawks coach Colleen Ford couldn't have been happier with her team's effort.
“We played real well. I am really proud of them,” Ford said. “It didn't help that they had two middle blockers that are over 6-feet tall. But we are consistent the whole way through.”
Kings (15-2) middle blocker Jackie Fuentes was primarily who Ford was talking about. Fuentes finished the match with a team-high 17 kills.
“Our hitting and serves did well,” Fuentes said. “Our coaching sets us apart from other teams. When most coaches say two hours, we practice until we are pushed to our limit.”
Jasmine Ortiz added 13 kills for the Kings and Sally Gastelo contributed 30 assists.
In the first set, Kofa faced a 13-12 deficit. The Kings answered with a 6-1 run to put the game out of reach for the Hawks (10-8) at 18-14 and scored the final three points of the set to give them the 25-19 win.
Both teams were evenly matched in the second set. With the score 18-18, the Kings put Gila Ridge away scoring seven of the final eight points.
Down 6-5 in the third set, the Kings distanced themselves with a 10-3 run to put the game out of reach and never trailed the rest of the match. Kofa finished the Hawks off with a 8-3 run for the sweep.
“We played well. We made few mistakes. We made up for it. We played hard. We passed the ball well,” Kings coach Brittany Garcia said. “Our defense hustled for balls well..
“We need to work on blocking. On offense we need to work from set to hit. It was definitely a plus to have 6-foot blockers. We taught our girls to hit around the block. They recognized it and hit around.”
Kofa will wait to see if their record is good enough to make the playoffs, with the bracket being announced on Saturday. The Kings started the week ranked No. 20 in the Arizona Interscholastic Association Division I Power Points, with essentially top 16 teams making the postseason.
