DURANGO FALL CLASSIC: Cougars compete with nation’s best

Coronado's girls volleyball team pushed Torrey Pines (Calif.), the No. 1 overall seed in the Durango Fall Classic, to the brink early Saturday morning.

Though the Cougars couldn't pull off a win, they proved they belonged among the nation's elite.

Coronado, ranked No. 88 in the country by Prepvolleyball.com, had the best showing of any Southern Nevada team in the two day, 64-team Durango Fall Classic.

The Cougars went 4-3 in the tournament, finishing fourth in the Silver Bracket and 12th overall. They improved on last year's 23rd overall finish.

"I told the girls we set the bar really high for ourselves for the rest of the season," Coronado coach Matt Johnson said. "We have no excuse to play below where we played in this tournament. We want to be the best team in Nevada, and to be the best, we have to go in and compete against the tough competition. We're really proud of how we played in this tournament. We're disappointed in the last two games, but we gave a whole lot to get to this point."

Coronado, the two-time defending Division I state champion, went 3-0 in pool play on Friday to advance to the championship qualifying round on Saturday.

The Cougars went 1-3 on the day, though.

Torrey Pines, ranked No. 2 in the country on Prepvolleyball.com, had to rally to top the Cougars in the first match of the day, 16-25, 25-11, 25-22.

Coronado then beat Walton (Ga.) — the nation's 28th-ranked team on Prepvolleyball.com — 25-17, 25-27, 25-23, in the Silver Bracket quarterfinals.

Long Beach Poly (Calif.) was a 25-20, 25-20 winner over Coronado, and Marymount (Calif.) topped Coronado, 25-22, 25-18 in the final placement match.

"We came in 16th today," Johnson said. "When we got here today, we wanted to make sure that we bettered our seed.

"We showed some resilience in this tournament. Fortunately, to win a state championship, we don't have to play five matches in a day. We were pretty gassed at the end. We went three (sets) with Torrey Pines and three with Walton, so we've got to learn to be a little more efficient and not give away so many points."

The Cougars, one of the 16 No. 1 seeds in the tournament, were the only Nevada team to play at Durango on the final day, as the other eight Southern Nevada teams went a combined 0-24 in pool play.

No other local team won a match in the tournament against an out-of-state opponent.

Arbor View and Faith Lutheran, which tied for 55th overall, were the next highest Southern Nevada teams. Shadow Ridge was 58th. Also in the field were: Centennial (59th), Foothill (60th), Palo Verde (61st), Durango (62nd) and Green Valley (tied for 63rd).

"We had a tough pool," Johnson said. "Newport Harbor (Calif.), Notre Dame Belmont (Calif.) and even Faith Lutheran. You put the (Division) I champ versus the I-A champ, and the I-A champ is going to play it like it's the gold medal match in the Olympics. They're a great team, so it was a tough pool. This was good for us because we can't simulate this stuff at practice. We got better in this tournament."

Coronado (8-3) setter Cali Thompson had 25 assists, two aces and six digs in the team's final match against Marymount.

Emily Bender added eight kills, and Nikki Jackson had five kills for the Cougars.

Johnson said the team's impressive showing over the weekend took a full group effort.

"Everybody had their moments. Everybody stepped up when they had to," he said. "Cali played great. Carolyn (Andrulis) was unstoppable yesterday. She hit for a really high percentage and was probably our best hitter yesterday. Megan Wang, our libero, saved a lot of rallies for us, covering our hitters, playing defense."

Assumption (Ky.) won its second straight tournament championship, defeating Santa Margarita (Calif.), 23-25, 26-24, 25-19 in the final.