Sunrise Mountain vs Centennial Recap

On Wednesday we were treated to a marquee 5A conference match up between Sunrise Mountain and Centennial. This was the #2 vs #3 teams in the recent AIA powerpoint rankings that came out this week. We saw a match up that had multiple top players from all 4 class rankings, and those players came to play in this match! This was a district rivalry match up as well, so the intensity was already at a high pulse on top of the powerpoint implications and actually led to the student section being thrown out midway through the second set.    In set one it started out with [player_tooltip player_id='829138' first='Alex' last='Thompson'] being on fire for the Coyotes. She notched her 5th kill in set 1 to bring the score to 10-10. However after she went to the back row the offense sputtered a little bit and the Mustangs took full advantage. Sunrise OH [player_tooltip player_id='808124' first='Addison' last='Wiemann'] got her 3rd kill of the set with a powerful cross court kill to give the Mustangs a 18-12 lead. That 6 point lead was all they needed as the set ended with a dump kill by [player_tooltip player_id='536784' first='Lily' last='Rolfes'], which was her 4th of the set to take the set 25-19.   Set 2 started out the same as set 1, a lot of back and forth action by both teams and this led to a point where Centennial pin Haley Rouse had back to back kills to bring the score to 13-13. After some more trading points [player_tooltip player_id='829138' first='Alex' last='Thompson'] got going again registering her 1st and 2nd kill of the set on back to back plays to bring the Coyotes back to even at 19-19. Alas that was the final gasp for the Coyotes as the Sunrise offense was too much in that set with [player_tooltip player_id='808124' first='Addison' last='Wiemann'] and [player_tooltip player_id='536786' first='Brooklyn' last='Jenkins'] both registering 5 kills each in that set. Overall the Mustangs had an astonishing 17 kills in set 2. To the credit of Centennial they were making the Mustangs earn all their points, especially because of the stellar play of their defense led by libero [player_tooltip player_id='802282' first='Kate' last='Federico']. Kate had 17 digs in the 1st two sets alone, digging multiple hard shots from the Sunrise pin hitters.    In our last set of the evening we had a different story unfold, Centennial led for the whole first half of the set. The Coyotes led by a balanced offense of [player_tooltip player_id='829138' first='Alex' last='Thompson'], Gabrielle Kresl, and [player_tooltip player_id='891541' first='Abigail' last='Whitson'] took a 13-9 lead in the 3rd set. [player_tooltip player_id='888740' first='Isabella' last='Palladino'] had a 3rd set to remember to keep the Coyotes involved. She would finish the set with 9 assists, 5 digs, and 3 kills in set 3 alone. This all around effort from the freshman in such a big game was a huge difference to the Coyotes being up for the early portion of this set. However after the midway point it was all Mustangs as they went on a 10-3 run to take a commanding lead in the set. [player_tooltip player_id='808124' first='Addison' last='Wiemann'] had 3 kills in that run and a block by Brielle Barrios helped cap off that 10-3 run. The final touches were back to back kills by [player_tooltip player_id='536786' first='Brooklyn' last='Jenkins'] who finished the match with 15 kills and the Mustangs won the match 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-22).   Some great volleyball was played and unofficially we had Jenkins with 15 kills, Weimann with 17 kills, and Thompson with 15. Federico led the way with 27 digs, and Rolfes led the way with 34 assists. After the match we asked Sunrise Mountain head coach Brandi Jans what were some factors that led to her win today. She told us that “We really worked on rotations that we have struggled in during practice to get out of that rotation quicker and work on our shots as well.” During the match they did a great job never being in one rotation too long, I believe Centennial only had 2-3 rotations in the 3 sets where they scored 3 or more points in a row. Seems the practice paid off for sure!    Even after the loss head coach Leah Orth found a good spin to put on the loss. We asked her how this game can be a building block for future matches and the rest of the season, she told us “We did well in our game plan today for what we needed to do for them, but we need to do a better job on our side being quicker on approaches, defense, overpasses.” I will agree that Coach Leah is right, her team did a great job making Sunrise earn each and every point. Offensively the Mustangs really had to work for their points and had to earn most of it.   Both coaches have some similar goals for the rest of the season as well, and both are excited for their rematch on October 27th. After seeing both these teams live and in person we are also excited for the rematch in a few weeks, and anticipate both these teams having a huge impact on the 5A playoffs in November.

On Wednesday we were treated to a marquee 5A conference match up between Sunrise Mountain and Centennial. This was the #2 vs #3 teams in the recent AIA powerpoint rankings that came out this week. We saw a match up that had multiple top players from all 4 class rankings, and those players came to play in this match! This was a district rivalry match up as well, so the intensity was already at a high pulse on top of the powerpoint implications and actually led to the student section being thrown out midway through the second set.