Page 25 - 2020 AIA Volleyball Championship Program

5A: A mix of old And new will mAke This An exciTing brAckeT
By Andy Morales AZPreps365.com
Ironwood Ridge finished the regular season undefeated for the first time since the school finished 17-0 in 2007. The team took the No. 1 seed that year and lost to No. 4 Ironwood in a 5-set marathon in the semifinal round of the 5A D-II state play- offs.
This year, the Nighthawks are doing it without the preseason favorite Player of the Year in Alyssa Feltman. Feltman injured her left knee and missed the season, but she still signed her Letter
of Intent to play for the University of Arizona Beach team on National Signing Day.
Leading the way, however, is the 5A Sonoran Region Player of the Year, setter Sophia Gomez. Gomez finished the regular season with 405 assists or 9.2 per set. She is spreading the wealth with senior Lauren Barberii (179 kills) and senior Alicia Cordova (125 kills) leading the way. Head coach Bill Lang leads Southern Arizona with 717 combined wins between the girls and the boys and he picked up his 499th win on the girl’s side with a 3-1 win over Marana on Nov. 5.
The Nighthawks earned a first-round bye with a team pulling out due to COVID issues, so the squad will wait for the winner
of the No. 8 Gilbert (11-3) vs. No. 9 Arcadia (10-5) match set for Saturday. Gilbert won the 5A San Tan Region and Arcadia took third in the 5A Northwest Valley Region. The Tigers beat Arcadia 3-0 in early October.
Horizon (16-1) took the No. 2 seed in 5A and the Huskies made it to the quarterfinals last year where the team fell 3-1 to eventual state champion Sunnyslope. Sunnyslope is now playing in the 6A Conference which will be a welcome sight to other 5A teams, sinces the Vikings have played for the last three 5A state titles, winning two of them including last year’s 5-set win over Millennium.
Millennium (13-1) is the No. 4 seed this year with the lone loss coming to No. 7 Cactus Shadows to open the season. The No. 3 seed is Buena from Sierra Vista. This is the first state play- off appearance for the Colts since 2006, and the team almost missed the playoffs this fall due to quarantine restrictions at the school. Buena (10-1) won the 5A Southern Region with a loss coming to No. 5 Cienega (10-2). Millennium captured the Desert West Region championship.
Cienega lost to 4A power Salpointe Catholic and region foe Buena in the regular season. The other 5A semifinal teams from last year – Centennial and Notre Dame, are no longer in the 5A picture with Notre Dame taking the top seed in the 4A Confer- ence and Centennial having to withdraw from the state playoffs. That means three of the final four 5A teams from last year are not involved this fall, so the playoffs are wide open.
It comes easy for Sophia Gomez of Ironwood Ridge as she has five teammates that had over 100 attacks this season to spread the ball to. (Andy Morlaes photo/AZPreps365)