SUNRISE VOLLEYBALL: Vikings post improbable rally, oust Coronado

Early mistakes put Valley in an almost insurmountable 0-2 disadvantage against Coronado in the first round of the Sunrise Region volleyball playoffs on Tuesday.

Well, almost insurmountable.

The Vikings cleaned up their mistakes and started attacking the middle of the Cougars defense as Valley rallied to take the match in five sets, 15-25, 20-25, 25-16, 25-23, 16-14, to advance in the playoffs. The Vikings (16-8) will take on Green Valley at 5 p.m. Thursday at Foothill High School in the Sunrise semifinals.

Prior to the third set, Valley head coach Matt Porter calmed his team down, told them to clean up their mistakes, asked them to take the match one point, one game at a time, and reminded his team to attack the middle of the Coronado defense.

Porter’s plan worked to perfection.

“Obviously, this is a tremendous win for us,” Porter said. “This is a tribute to our resiliency as a team. We just never gave up. We believed in ourselves that we could win it. We were fortunate to get the fifth game, and the rest is history.

“Coronado is a really good team, but we were just making too many mistakes. So, I said that if we could clean up the mistakes, we have a shot at this, and we did a good job at that.”

The Vikings heeded Porter’s advice early in the third set as Valley’s Justin Sandoval recorded four consecutive aces to start the set. The Vikings used that early momentum to jump out to a 10-4 lead and never looked back.

In the fourth set, the Cougars (20-17) appeared ready to close out the match, but senior Marty Heavey rallied his team one more time to overcome a 21-23 deficit to take the set.

“We wanted to test their passing, and I think that was a key,” Porter said. “Then, we wanted to be able to block their pin hitters. You know they are really tough on the outside. We did OK in that area, but our serving was the real key to the game as far as putting pressure on them and getting them out of their system. Just putting pressure on them really changed the match.”

Valley had not played a fifth set all season, but that didn’t seem to affect the Vikings as they took an early lead on a couple of Jared Marchello’s kills. After Coronado rallied to force match point, Marchello delivered the winning kill.

Heavey finished with 24 kills and 14 digs to lead the Vikings. Marchello added 17 kills and digs, and Justin Sandoval dished out 37 assists and had five aces.

“Justin and Marty are our 1-2 punch,” Porter said. “I love both of those kids. They are tremendous competitors. We plan basically that we win or lose with those two. We have total confidence in them coming through just as they did. They are both outstanding players, and they deserve all the recognition they get this year.”

J.J. Meath had 18 kills to lead the Cougars, and teammate Ryan Garlick added 16 kills. Justice Balaney-Flores had 63 assists, and Nik Purser had 13 kills and nine digs for Coronado.

Las Vegas 3, Basic 0 — At Las Vegas, Luis Wong dished out 41 assists, and Cannon McCoy had 17 digs as the Wildcats swept the Wolves, 25-15, 25-15, 25-10 in a region quarterfinal.

Brandon Kampshoff and Raymond Magante each added 12 kills for Las Vegas (27-12), which will travel to Foothill (27-10) in a region semifinal at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Brad McDonald had eight kills, and Matt Gajeski notched 14 assists for Basic (9-11).

Foothill 3, Silverado 0 — At Foothill, Shilo Chow had 32 assists, five kills and three digs to help the Falcons to a 25-9, 25-13, 25-9 win over the Skyhawks in a region quarterfinal.

Eric Szukiewicz added nine kills and four digs, and Zachary Sangster had 13 digs for Foothill.

Silverado finished 7-14.

Green Valley 3, Liberty 0 — At Green Valley, Chase Larson had 11 kills and 10 blocks to lead the Gators to a 25-15, 25-10, 25-10 sweep of the Patriots in a region quarterfinal.

James Reed added 10 kills and five blocks for Green Valley.

Liberty finished 8-16.