SUNRISE VOLLEYBALL: Coronado rolls to quarterfinal win

Coronado girls volleyball coach Matt Johnson had some concerns as his young team approached the postseason.

On Tuesday, however, it appeared the Cougars had worked out many of those kinks.

Madison Karcich had 19 kills and five digs to help Coronado dominate from start to finish for a 25-9, 25-14, 25-17 victory over Las Vegas in first-round play of the Sunrise Region tournament at Silverado.

“We didn’t really know anything about (the Wildcats),” Johnson said. “I was just so concerned about us getting better. I was mainly concerned about what we were doing on our side of the net.”

Those concerns subsided early, as Coronado (14-16) took control from the opening serve to jump ahead 6-0 in the first set with the help of a pair of aces from Zoe Lier. Karcich had six kills in the opener, preventing the Wildcats (16-21) from establishing an effective rhythm.

“Madison is one of our emotional leaders,” Johnson said. “We like her role to be a little more diverse, but our freshman setter (Dallas Balanay-Flores) felt very comfortable setting her tonight because she was hot.”

Las Vegas nabbed a brief 2-1 lead in the second set, but that was convincingly erased by an 8-0 Coronado scoring run that gave the Cougars a 13-5 lead. Karcich had six more kills in the set to help her team take a two-set lead.

The third set was somewhat more competitive, but Coronado controlled the tempo after a slow start and put it out of reach with a 10-2 run to build a 19-11 advantage.

Johnson saw some shortcomings, but said he was pleased with his squad’s overall performance.

“I think we have all the pieces to make a deep (postseason) run,” he said. “It’s just a matter of being on the same page and staying mentally prepared.”

Lier added nine kills, six aces and three digs to help Coronado, and Balanay-Flores finished with 33 assists and two aces.

The Cougars host Silverado (28-7) in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Renice Sueno led Las Vegas with three kills, and teammate Victoria Barney added three aces.

Silverado 3, Canyon Springs 0 — At Silverado, the Skyhawks logged 10 of their 21 aces in the first set and rolled to a 25-5, 25-7, 25-10 win over the Pioneers.

Kui’Puha Untalan, Mariah Morris and Maggie Pupkiewicz had five kills apiece to lead Silverado, which jumped to a 12-1 lead in the first set and held similar leads throughout most of the night.

MacKenzie Carter had five aces and Catherine Coty had four aces to help the Skyhawks.

Yemiyah Morris led Canyon Springs (2-10) with two kills and a block.

Foothill 3, Rancho 0 — At Rancho, Whitley Brow had 12 kills and 10 digs to lead the Falcons past the Northeast League champion Rams, 25-15, 25-17, 25-11.

Kiley McCall had three kills, five digs and 26 assists, and McKenzie Youngman had seven kills and two digs for Foothill (17-18), which plays Green Valley (25-7) at 4 p.m. on Thursday at Coronado.

Karime Raygoza had six kills and 10 digs to lead the Rams. Mia Suzuki had 17 digs, and teammate Leiana Nacapuy dished out 18 assists for Rancho (16-16).

Green Valley 3, Valley 0 — At Rancho, Rachel Klopfer had 13 kills to lead the Gators to a 25-5, 25-10, 25-7 sweep of the Vikings in the Sunrise quarterfinals.

Anya Olsen had eight aces, Carlee Becker had six aces and Abigail Olsen added 23 assists for Green Valley. Maya Hill had five kills, and Emily Flowers had six digs for the Gators.

Jessica Perez had five digs to lead Valley (7-17).