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Coronado makes statement beating defending state champ Green Valley in straight sets

In a battle for the top spot in the Southeast League, the Coronado boys volleyball team proved dominant Wednesday night.

The Cougars earned a 25-18, 25-22, 25-16 road win over rival Green Valley to remain unbeaten in league play.

Green Valley (11-8, 3-1 Southeast League) and Coronado faced (10-6, 4-0) off earlier this season during the Las Vegas Invitational last month with the Gators earning the 2-0 victory. The Cougars didn’t need that game as motivation Wednesday.

“Obviously we want to beat them whenever we can,” Coronado coach Matt Johnson said. “It’s a great tradition and rivalry between us and Green Valley but more so the motivation is that they are defending state champions.”

The aggressive Cougars spent much of every set in the lead and would not allow the Gators to make a comeback attempt.

Senior Ryan Garlick led Coronado with 18 kills, and senior Ben Truman added 11 more. Junior Matt Matt Wilson added 39 assists and15 digs for the Cougars.

“The effort from all the boys was really good,” Johnson said. “We fought for points, we kept the ball in play and we didn’t give up.”

Coronado did a good job of limiting the Green Valley’s scoring runs. In every set there the Cougars were able to answer the Gators to stop any momentum they tried to build.

“They had a great crowd here tonight making noise and supporting them,” Johnson said. “The better you play the quieter the crowd gets on the road. And if we had allowed that crowd to give some energy to that team it might have been a different story. But we stayed focused and we shut out the crowd and we just took care of business.”

Senior James Reed had 17 kills and nine digs to to lead Green Valley. Senior Brian Barkemeyer added 25 assists for the Gators.

“We learned some things about some things we need to work on in practice tomorrow and the next day,” Johnson said. “So that’s all we can do is keep learning and figure out and what we can do to get better tomorrow.”

Contact reporter Bill Slane at bslane@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4559. Follow @bill_slane on Twitter.

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