Palo Verde gains experience, tournament title

The Palo Verde girls volleyball team was simply hoping to gain some experience in this weekend’s season opening Las Vegas Invitational.

The Panthers, however, left with a lot of hardware and a lot of confidence after defeating Bishop Alemany (Calif.), the defending tournament champion, 25-19, 25-23 to claim the Gold Bracket title at Foothill.

Junior setter Arien Fafard was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, and junior outside hitter Carli Tanner and freshman outside hitter Kaila Yang were named to the all-tournament team.

“I feel really happy because I have my team behind me, and my team helped me the whole way through,” said Fafard, who finished the tournament with 28 kills, 130 assists and 46 digs. “(Winning the tournament) showed a lot. It showed we have a lot of grind in us, and that we’re ready to keep pushing and pushing, holding each other accountable and working together.”

All in all, not a bad way for the Panthers to start a season filled with promise.

“Winning this is a bonus for us,” Palo Verde coach Phil Clark said. “It is early, first weekend of the season, so we wanted to see what we need to work on, and see what we are doing — right or wrong — to work that out. So, to do what they did and win it is just the icing on the cake. They worked their butt off. Alemany is a great team, but we saw a lot from our team. They are mentally tougher than we thought at this point in the season.”

The Panthers had to show that mental toughness just to get to the championship game. Palo Verde dropped their first set in the semifinals, but rallied to win the final two sets to defeat Bishop Gorman, 25-27, 25-20, 15-12.

In the championship round, the Warriors pushed the Panthers throughout the match.

In the first set, the Panthers jumped out to an early lead as Fafard, who finished the title match with 19 assists, continually set her teammates up for kill opportunities.

In the second set, the Panthers jumped out to a commanding 20-15 lead, but the Warriors wouldn’t go away quietly. Annah Rivera rallied her team with kill shots and the Warriors would eventually pull to within 24-23. However, Tanner finished off the Warriors with one of her 11 kills to claim the title.

“I was pleased with how they answered, especially after dropping the first set against Gorman” Clarke said. “I guess it’s hard to play from ahead because sometimes you kind of relax. We kind of emphasize to them you can’t do that, but we were so happy with how they responded in those situations.”

Fafard added five kills and five digs. Young had two kills and nine digs, and Alyssa Hewitt had four kills and three blocks.

“Arian, she’s a captain, and offensively, they know they just get the ball into Arian’s hands, she’s going to put it where it needs to go and give our hitters a lot of good opportunities.,” Clark said. “One-on-ones, she’s just already good. Everyone knows that and she just really stepped up today.”

Rivera led the Warriors with 10 kills.

Gator Classic

Durango picked up its first big win of the season, claiming the title of the Gator Classic with a 25-21, 25-20, 25-18 victory over host Green Valley on Saturday.

Durango’s Jaylin Elis was named tournament MVP, and teammates Tehani Faitau, Anuhea Faitau and Sophia Dominguez joined her on the all-tournament team.

Green Valley’s Deijah Spaight and Jenn Soha were named to the all-tournament team, as were Rancho’s Mia Suzuki and Kennedee Jones.

Durango defeated Spring Valley, 25-17, 25-13, 25-12 earlier Saturday. Green Valley downed Rancho, 25-13, 11-25, 18-25, 25-21, 18-16.