No. 2 Canyon del Oro beat No. 3 Salpointe 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 27-25) Wednesday night at home to capture the 4A Kino Region championship and the automatic playoff berth that comes with the title. It was the first region championship for Dorados dating back to the fall of 2016 when the Dorados split with the Lancers but finished the regular season with a better conference record to earn the tiebreaker.

The Lancers went on to win the state title that year and the Dorados made an appearance in the semifinal round. Salpointe ran off eight straight victories over the Dorados since 2016 but that streak ended with a sweep at the hand of the Dorados this fall. The two losses dropped Salpointe’s record to 13-2 in power-ranking matches with three matches left in the regular season including what is expected to be a huge match with No.1 Notre Dame (14-0) visiting on Monday, Oct. 25.

The Dorados are riding a wave that includes a set record of 48-2 this fall with the two sets taken by Salpointe in an epic 5-set match two weeks ago that helped set up the rematch Wednesday night.

(Annika Arvayo with the shot for Salpointe/Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

The victory Wednesday night was a difficult one with Salpointe erasing a 19-10 deficit in the first set down to a 23-19 margin but the Dorados held on for the 25-22 victory after Sophia Hernandez dished out three straight assists for the Lancers to make things even closer at 24-22. A service error accounted for the 25-22 final.

“I think we need to work on starting off a lot stronger because at the beginning of all of our sets it's seems always point for point and it takes 10 or 15 points to really push us so we need to work on like starting off stronger from the beginning,” Abby Whatton said on the Dorado scoring lapses.

“We’re making a lot of repetitive errors and just not recovering fast enough which leads to runs from the other team,” Whatton added.

The second set played out to a slim 21-20 margin for the Dorados but a couple of scores from Alina Nunez and Whatton, combined with an ace from Morgan Hains, led to the 25-20 win. It looked like the Dorados were going to take the third set early with a 21-16 lead but the Lancers responded once again and forced a 24-24 tie and then a 25-25 tie. Nunez put down her 21st kill of the night to make it 26-25 and then the Dorados came away with the 27-25 win for the sweep.

“It feels like a huge accomplishment to finally beat Salpointe two times, especially in three sets, which is something we weren’t prepared for, not even in practice,” Whatton said. “I just feel really proud of the girls and proud of myself. We've worked so hard and I feel in my senior year we're finally getting the victories and recognition we deserve.”

Canyon del Oro will finish out the regular season with a match against Pueblo (4-11) on Monday and with senior night on Oct. 28 against Nogales (2-11). Salpointe and Canyon del Oro are on pace to avoid the conference play-in tournament on Tuesday, Nov. 2 but will wait to see which teams they will host in first-round action in the state playoffs on Thursday, Nov. 4. The higher seeds will also host the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds but the state championship match will be played at the Veteran's Memorial Coliseum on Nov. 13.

Salpointe followed up the 2016 state title with another in 2017 and the program outlasted Notre Dame last fall in five sets to win it all again.

“I'm super excited for the Notre Dame game, I think it's going to help us align and help us get better," senior libero Jalynn Ransom explained on where her team needs to go from here.

“I think us as a team, we need to get a lot out of practice and just start getting more serious and focusing on the things we need to work on. We have all the potential in every single spot. We just have to put it together and become one as a team.”

Ransom commited to play for Pima College recently and the commitment will make it possible for her family to see her play up close.

“I talked it over with my family recently and we decided it was the best decision to keep playing volleyball and I'm super excited about it. Dan (Pima head coach Dan Bithell) talked to me a couple months ago about how he was looking at me and another girl on our team and it worked out.”

(Jalynn Ransom/Andy Morales/AZPreps365)