Volleyball sees improvements in losing effort (video)

The Maricopa High School volleyball team fell to Florence High School in straight sets, but head coach Lashieka Holley was happy with her team’s improved defense.

Florence entered Thursday’s game ranked third in Maxpreps.com’s poll of Arizona Interscholastic Association Division III volleyball. The Gophers looked to be the dominant team with powerful striking and quick footwork. However, the feisty Rams defense frustrated the Gophers front line with consistent blocks and digs.

“They did great,” Holley said. “They did everything I needed them to do. For us to show up like that gives me hope for the rest of the season. Florence is No. 1 in our division, so they put up a good show.”

The stingy Maricopa defense took a visible toll on the Florence players. The Gophers have tremendous power in their spikes, but their game plan was forced to adjust their hits to taps over the blockers instead of powerful slams. The Rams successful blocks and returns also obviously frustrated Florence head coach Casey Simon as well. Throughout the match, he was seen pacing up and down his bench, constantly correcting his team, and consistently shouting, “No more errors” to his players.

“He got pretty heated,” Holley said. “[The Rams successful play] gave him fits, and I haven’t seen him react like that in years.”

The Rams eventually fell in straight sets by scores of 25-21, 25-18 and 26-24. Maricopa rallied from a significant hole in each set, but Florence pulled away. Despite the loss, Holley was encouraged by the improvement she saw from the Rams’ four set loss to Casa Grande High School on Tuesday.

“After Tuesday night, we couldn’t get a block to save our life,” Holley said. “They were a small team and it made no sense, so at yesterday’s practice, all we did for two and a half hours was block, block, block, block, block.” The Rams fell to the Casa Grande Cougars by scores of 21-25, 20-25, 25-22, and 20-25.

Holley said Maricopa hadn’t lost to Casa Grande in a few years, so it was a disappointing defeat. The Cougars were able to walk away with a win over their rival, while the Rams were forced to see what corrections they needed to make as a team moving forward.

“We need to continue to work on our unity as a team,” Holley said. “I think that was the difference on Tuesday. Casa played as a team, and we didn’t show up and play as a team at all. So our focus is to get that dynamic as a team going since our schedule only gets tougher.”

Before the letdown in Casa Grande on Tuesday, Maricopa competed in the Greenway Invitational Tournament in Phoenix over the weekend. The Rams first match of the tournament was against the top ranked team in Division III, the Greenway Demons. The Rams were blown out in the first set 21-4. However, the team rallied in the second set and lost a nail biter by a score of 25-21. The Demons went on to win the tournament on their home floor and remained undefeated on the year.

Maricopa faced Division I power Sunrise Mountain High School (Peoria) in their second match. Again, the Rams were outmatched, but a tremendous performance against a significantly larger school inspired the Rams for the rest of the tournament.

The Rams took down the Moon Valley High School (Phoenix) Rockets and the Alhambra High School (Avondale) Lions in straight sets to finish sixth in the tournament. The Rams are ranked 15th in the Maxpreps.com rankings of Division III and hold an overall record of 6 wins and 5 losses. The team will travel to Chandler to take on the 13th ranked Valley Christian High School Trojans Monday night before returning home on Tuesday to host the Vista Grande High School Spartans. The Rams will finish out a busy week on Thursday at home against the Phoenix Country Day School Eagles.

“Florence should be our toughest match until we hit playoffs, but everything is going to be tougher for us going forward,” Holley said. “If they play like they did [against Florence] going forward and I can keep them consistent like that, we’ll have a good shot.”