Wolves put bite on Rams

A slow start doomed the Maricopa High girls’ volleyball team in its home opener Tuesday evening.

When all was said and done, Estrella Foothills High School left town with a 25-8, 25-19, 25-11 victory.

“We started slow, but we made improvements as the match progressed,” Maricopa head coach Paul Olson said. “We need to make improvements to our serve receive before we play our next match.” It will be a battle of the Rams when Maricopa entertains the Rams of Antelope (Wellton) High School Thursday evening at 6 p.m.

In the loss to the Wolves, Maricopa fell behind 5-1 in the opening game and failed to mount any sort of rally, losing 25-8.

A sign of hope came in the second game when the Rams swapped points with the Wolves for most of the game.

At one point, it appeared the Wolves were pulling away and would win easily, but the Rams mounted a comeback in scoring five straight points, making the score 20-14. Maricopa only allowed one point when it lost the serve, then added three more points of its own to make the score 21-19. After losing the serve, the Rams were unable to get the ball back, falling 25-19.

In the third game, the Wolves once again dominated.

After the Rams scored first, Estrella pulled away to make the score 7-2. A long rally, ending in a point for Maricopa, gave the Rams the opportunity to score two more points and bring themselves within two of Estrella at 10-8.

But similarly to the first game, the Rams had very few options to score the rest of the game and lost the final stanza by a 25-11 count.