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Williams opens region play with 2 tough opponets

Heading into last weekend’s match with Mogollon, coach Ken Edes knew how dangerous Kendra Greer could be on the opposition. Greer’s been tearing up the court in northern Arizona volleyball over the past few years.

With that in mind, Edes instructed his Lady Vikings to approach Mogollon, particularly Greer, with a specific strategy designed to keep the hard-hitting senior out of position. The tactic worked for most of the first match, but the Mustangs were still able to take a 13-15, 15-6, 16-14 win.

“Kendra Greer, she’s my vote for MVP,” Edes said. “She can switch to her left hand and still get kills. We prepared all week ... and the girls did exactly what they should have. When she was in the back position, she started missing and we started scoring.”

After taking the first-game win, Williams had a bit of a letdown in the second game to set up a third-game thriller. In the stretch run, Mogollon got up to a 14-12 lead and had a chance with match point. Williams rallied to tie the game, 14-14. But the Mustangs scored the next two points to take the game and match.

“I think we outhustled and outplayed them,” Edes said. “Kendra proved to be too strong.”

In the second match, Mogollon had an easier time with a 15-5, 15-0 victory.

“We put it all into that first one and had nothing left,” Edes said. “We still had some awesome plays. But we just couldn’t get it back.”

Edes pointed out the play of Teri Stevens. The freshman was going after balls and on one play, came up with a “pancake,” a term for diving close to the floor and keeping the ball alive. Amy Christman picked it up and got the ball over the net.

Earlier in the week, Williams dropped a pair of matches to St. Johns in the conference opener for both schools, 15-11, 15-0. The Lady Vikings jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first game, and later held a 10-6 advantage over the Redskins.

With three six-footers at the net, St. Johns controlled the stretch run and ended up with the 15-11 win in game one. Sheena Lann was a force at the service line by scoring 10 of the team’s 11 points.

In the second game of the first match, St. Johns scored 14 straight points with the same server and ended up with the shutout.

In the second match, St. Johns took a 15-13, 15-2 win. Again, the Lady Vikings played well in the first game with both teams going back and forth point-for-point.

“They made a lot of mistakes, which helped us,” Edes said of the closer first game. “We had our focus for that one game.”

Focus was difficult for the girls after the previous week which saw a terrorist attack on the country and closer to home, the death of a friend. “They showed a lot of heart ... it was very emotional,” Edes said.

The junior-varsity girls went up against a St. Johns team loaded with tall girls and dropped a 15-2, 15-1 match. Edes said the Redskins’ JV girls could probably beat a lot of varsity teams.

Mogollon’s JV was a 15-2, 15-10 winner over the Lady Vikings on Saturday. Williams’ Sylvia Aguilar played well in a losing cause.

In freshmen volleyball, St. Johns downed the Lady Vikes, 15-12, 15-8, in a close match with several long rallies. On Saturday, Mogollon’s undefeated freshmen team took a 15-5, 15-9 win over Williams.

Williams (0-4, 2-7) played at Grand Canyon Tuesday in matches after deadline. That meeting had been rescheduled from Sept. 11.

The Lady Vikes will host Mayer Friday with varsity matches at 4 and 6 p.m. and a JV match at 5 p.m. The team then heads to the Joseph City Tournament Saturday.


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