SUNSET VOLLEYBALL: Palo Verde wins title, advances to state

Palo Verde’s girls volleyball team found itself needing to clear one final hurdle Friday in order to qualify for the state tournament for the first time in nine years.

That hurdle was Bishop Gorman, which had won four straight region titles.

Loaded with emotion from the opening serve, the Panthers used a team effort to knock off the Gaels 25-17, 25-19, 12-25, 25-23 in the Division I Sunset Region tournament final at Leagcy.

Palo Verde (34-4) advances to the state tournament, which begins Friday at Green Valley. Gorman (28-8) will face host Green Valley in a play-in match for the final state berth at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“I can’t believe we did it; what a great feeling this is,” said Palo Verde’s Kendall Cheval, who had four of the final five kills in the fourth set. “It’s great to beat our main rival in a setting like this. Getting to state has been the goal for us all season long.”

Palo Verde came out of the gate on fire, using a six-point spurt to gain control. The Panthers led by as many as 11 points in the opening set before taking the eight-point win.

“The key was to come out playing well, and that’s what we did,” Palo Verde coach Greg Siqueiros said. “We wanted to play hard on each and every point and not give them easy points. We had some adversity during the match, and momentum swung many times, but we made the plays when we needed them.”

The second set was a carbon copy of the first, as Palo Verde used an early run to take control. The Panthers had kills from Lexi Riggs and McCall Phillips to gain an 8-1 edge.

“We couldn’t get into any rhythm early, and that hurt us,” Gaels coach Ed Van Meetren said. “We tried a couple of different things in those first couple of games but couldn’t get it going. Give credit to Palo Verde. They are an outstanding team, which played an oustanding match.”

Gorman refused to go away quietly as the Gaels got huge efforts from seniors Gianna Ruggeroli and Emma Kirst to win the third set. Ruggeroli nailed three straight kills and dived into the Gorman bench to save a ball, which led to a point during a 10-5 run.

With the final set knotted at 20-20, Cheval took over for Palo Verde with a variety of kills, including a pair of short taps to give the Panthers the title.

“We wanted to stay humble and just play our game,” Cheval said. “We didn’t want to get too cocky and not play our game.”

Stephanie Herman had 43 assists, 15 digs and three kills for the Panthers, and Riggs added 16 digs. Phillips had 12 kills and nine digs, with Cheval adding 10 kills and 17 digs. Faryn Duncan had 27 digs, and Jenna Bobroski added 20 digs for Palo Verde.

Emma Filosi had 30 assists for Gorman. Ruggeroli had two aces, 10 kills, eight digs and two blocks. Kirst had eight digs and two blocks, and teammate Francesca Manz finished with seven kills and eight digs.