(Tucson, AZ) The Pima Community College volleyball team (8-5, 5-1 in ACCAC) closed out a busy week on Friday as it hosted No. 6 ranked Scottsdale Community College at the West Campus Aztec Gymnasium.
The Aztecs rallied after being down 2-1 in the match to stun the Fighting Artichokes in five sets (25-22, 18-25, 24-26, 30-28, 15-8). There were 37 ties in the match.
The Aztecs went 3-0 this week, beat two NJCAA Division II nationally ranked teams, and played a total of 15 sets as they all went to the fifth set tie-breaker.
This was Pima’s first win over Scottsdale since Oct. 20, 2021. They had lost their previous five meetings.
The Aztecs trailed 14-11 in the first set but scored five straight points to take their first lead. The Artichokes retook the lead at 17-16 but the Aztecs came back again with four straight points. Freshman Addy Fisher (Queen Creek HS) had two straight aces and sophomore Elli Meinke (Ironwood Ridge HS) had a kill to make it 20-17. Pima took their biggest lead when freshman Julia Weatherbie (Mountain View HS) had an ace to put the score at 22-18. The Aztecs took the lead 1-0 after eight ties in the set.
The Artichokes took the early lead in the second set. Down 12-11, the Aztecs got three straight kills from freshman Maggie McReynolds (Mountain View HS), sophomore Haylee Gilleland (Flagstaff HS) and sophomore Kenna Simon to take a 14-12 lead. With the score tied at 16-16, the Artichokes scored nine of the final 11 points to tie the match at 1-1.
The Aztecs trailed 16-10 in the third set but went on a 10-4 run to tie it up at 20-20. Sophomore Jasmin Joseph’s (Tanque Verde HS) ace put Pima ahead 22-21 and the Aztecs had set-point at 24-23. The Artichokes scored the final three points to take a 2-1 lead.
The script flipped in the fourth set as the Aztecs took the lead at 15-9 but it was Scottsdale, who would score 10 of the next 12 points to take an 19-17 advantage. The Aztecs led 24-22 but the Artichokes spoiled their set-point opportunities to tie the game at 24-24. From that point, there were four more ties during extra play. The Aztecs tied the match at 2-2 after scoring the final two points. Sophomore Taylor Crawford (Ironwood Ridge HS) put down an ace to send it to a tiebreaker.
The Aztecs carried the momentum into the final set as they scored the first four of five points. Up 5-3, the Aztecs scored seven of the next eight points to take their biggest lead at 12-4. Gilleland had two kills during that stretch. Meinke had a huge block at the net to make it 13-5, forcing the Artichokes to call timeout. McReynolds had the final two kills to seal the win.
Gilleland led the way with 20 kills to go with one block and one ace. McReynolds posted 17 kills and two aces while Meinke added 11 kills, three aces and three blocks.
Simon finished the match with nine kills and four blocks. Fisher had three aces.
The Aztecs play their third straight match against an NJCAA Division II nationally ranked team on Wednesday when they go up against No. 18 Glendale Community College on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. in Glendale.
Press Release courtesy of Pima Aztec Athletics – Raymond Suarez
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