Rams dispatch Dust Devils in four

It was Senior Night at Maricopa High School Thursday night, and, appropriately, it was seniors Jasmine Melvin, Arielle Fife, and Erin Litchfield who paced the Rams with 10, 5, and 4 kills apiece.

Junior Caitlin Snow added eight service aces, including a stretch of five straight, as the Rams defeated Santa Cruz High School in four sets 25-17, 25-11, 25-19, 19-25.

Before the Rams girls’ volleyball team took the court, they honored their senior players, one by one, announcing their names to the crowd. Those acknowledged included Fife, Litchfield and Melvin, as well as Jenny Ly and Karla Torres.

The Rams fell behind quickly in the first set as the Dust Devils scored the first two points of the match. But after the Rams took back serve with a hit into the net, Stacey Turley launched two of her four service aces. This sparked a four-point swing as Melvin was able to score her first kill and one of her two aces.

The two teams then exchanged serve for several points with the Rams getting the best of it as they stretched their lead to 5-11. However, the Dust Devils were able to bring the score back to a tie with the help of a six-point run while on serve.

With the score knotted at 16, the Rams were able to pull away with the help of strong serving by Tabitha Hoctor and Turley, along with the strong hitting of Melvin.

Set two got off to a quick start for the Rams as they were able to jump out to a three- point lead with Hoctor on serve. After the Dust Devils scored on a serve that landed out of bounds, the Rams put the ball in the hands of Snow, who keyed a 10-point run. This included six aces, five of them in consecutive order.

Although the Dust Devils were able to match the Rams point for point, it was a case of not being able to make up the large deficit opened up early on.

Quickly, the Rams were able to jump out to a lead in set three behind two more kills by Melvin. But the Dust Devils were able to just as quickly even the score. From there, the two teams kept stride with one another with strong play on both sides of the net. With the score tied at 13 points each, Santa Cruz went on a 12-6 scoring run despite continued strong efforts by the Rams.

After taking a 3-11 lead in set four, it looked as though the Rams were going to walk away with an easy win. Again, the scoring was keyed by the hitting of Melvin, although hitting errors by the Dust Devils helped the Rams in their cause.

However, the Dust Devils were able to pull within one point with the score at 19-20. Fittingly, it was the senior Fife who then helped push her team to the win with an ace and two kills, the last one ending the game with an emphatic statement.
The win lifts the Rams to an overall record of 4-11, while the Dust Devils continued a disappointing, winless season.

Next up for the Rams is the final home game of the season against 7-7 Florence High School on Tuesday, Oct. 25.

Photo by David Vargas