4A-6A State Finals Recap

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>What a fantastic finish to the end of the Arizona High School season! We crowned 6 state champions over the course of the week, and saw some repeat winners, and some new winners! We got a chance to see some of the best AZ had to offer in these matches and some girls really rose to the occasion!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We will take the opportunity to recap the 4A-6A finals, if you haven't seen Marissa's post from the 1A-3A finals go read that recap!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>4A Finals:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 4A finals was very well balanced finals. Both teams finished with 46 kills, both teams had single digit ace numbers, both teams had over 80 digs, however…. There was one big difference and that was the blocking of Salpointe. Salpointe finished the match with 18 blocks to ALA QC's 5 blocks. The block was giving absolute fits to the ALA QC pins as they had no answer for the block put up by Salpointe. [player_tooltip player_id='807263' first='Sara' last='Bowcutt'] and [player_tooltip player_id='877459' first='Tatum' last='Riggs'] were both held under .025 hitting percentage throughout the match. Although each of these girls had some great offensive moments, they continually were getting blocked or blocked touched by the Salpointe block. Leading the way for Salpointe on the blocking end was [player_tooltip player_id='877469' first='Natalie' last='Mobley'] with 8 blocks and [player_tooltip player_id='875006' first='Kate' last='Mobley'] with 5 blocks. On the other side of the coin Salpointe had their way on offense as their depth was on display throughout the match. They had 4 girls average over 2 kills a set and were very balanced throughout the match. Credit to [player_tooltip player_id='888729' first='Callen' last='Hutchens'] and [player_tooltip player_id='908442' first='Caitlin' last='Hurley'] who each had over 20 assists and kept the ALA QC defense guessing all night. ALA QC was super scrappy throughout the match and [player_tooltip player_id='803014' first='Miley' last='Hakes'] did a tremendous job on the defensive end getting over 31 digs. She was flying all over the court and was digging some pretty hard driven balls and keeping her team in system. She always was doing a great job covering her hitters as best she could, as those blocking numbers could have been much higher if not for her effort.&nbsp;However at the end of the day, the depth and blocking of Salpointe was too much for ALA QC. Salpointe put on an absolute clinic and congrats to Coach Rubio on his state title! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prepdig Player of the match:&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='877469' first='Natalie' last='Mobley']-Salpointe</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>5A FInals:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Honestly the marquee match up of the day! Everyone in attendance knew this was going to be a back and forth match with it going the distance and boy did it not disappoint! First I have to give a shoutout to Sunrise Mountain Senior OH [player_tooltip player_id='544378' first='Addison' last='Wiemann'] who had one of the best performances in a finals ever. She finished one kill shy of being top 20 all time for kills in a match for a 5 setter, and almost broke the conference record for most attempts in a match with 100. She tried her hardest to will her team to victory and is was one of the best performances I have ever seen in person. However, hats off to Chaparral as they were able to withstand a generational performance and pull out the victory. Although it was back and forth set wise, it was also back and forth point wise as well. In each set (besides set 4) each team went on multiple 3-0 runs (even multiple 6-0 runs). No lead was ever safe and each of these teams top hitters had their moments of brilliance. On the Chaparral side you had [player_tooltip player_id='874777' first='Clara' last='Schramm'] leading the way by finishing the match with 14 kills. She had multiple energy changing swings that were untouchable by the Sunrise defense. Speaking of defense, Chaparral libero [player_tooltip player_id='792814' first='Caprice' last='Cooper'] had 47 digs in this match, which is part of the reason why the Sunrise pins weren't able to get more kills then they did. She was flying all over the court and touching these hard driven shots that no one had business touching. The 47 digs were a career high and a playoff high across all divisions and matches this postseason. You had two players on each side going at it in terms of what they brought to the floor for their team. In the end, the stellar play of Caprice and Clara were enough to get Chaparral over the hump and win this dramatic match in 5.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prepdig Co-Player of the match:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='792814' first='Caprice' last='Cooper'] - Chaparral </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='544378' first='Addison' last='Wiemann']-Sunrise Mountain</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>6A Finals:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This was the third meeting between these two top level teams this season, with Xavier pulling out the first two heading into the finals. The amount of top level AZ talent in this match was second to none as you saw 10 prospects ranked in their classes top 10 in this match. Xavier as for much of this season had their way with their offense throughout the 3 sets. [player_tooltip player_id='774402' first='Tessa' last='Larkin'] led the Gators with 19 kills in the 3 sets, but also got contribution [player_tooltip player_id='885088' first='Sahmone' last='Wadsworth'] with 11 kills, [player_tooltip player_id='544566' first='Vivian' last='Hickman'] with 7, and [player_tooltip player_id='593870' first='Annabelle' last='Ross'] with 7. On the flip side no one from Corona Del Sol was able to get into double digit kills, and they relied heavily on [player_tooltip player_id='448314' first='Erin' last='Clark'] to dig numerous shots from the Xavier hitters. Erin finished the match with 21 digs, and was able to give Corona multiple second chance opportunities to get kills. On the flip side [player_tooltip player_id='534541' first='Mattea' last='Saunders'] did a great job for the Gators as well, as she finished with 27 digs respectively to always keep Xavier in system. Xavier is on a different level this year, and showed that by breezing through the AZ competition this year in route to a state finals. They were one of the more impressive teams to have watched live this year and are in the discussion for greatest AZ team ever. Corona Del Sol did a great job competing throughout the match but the depth of Xavier is a lot to handle. The match ended 3-0 with the Gators winning back to back state titles. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prepdig Player of the match:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='774402' first='Tessa' last='Larkin']-Xaiver&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->