By Mark Carlisle
Twitter: @mwcarlisle

No. 3 Estrella Foothills continues to dominate, sweeping No. 6 Flagstaff in the 4A quarterfinals 25-18, 26-24, 25-16 Tuesday night at Estrella Foothills High School in Goodyear.

It is the Wolves sixth straigh three-set sweep and second of the state playoffs.

Estrella Foothills (27-2 overall, 15-1 regular season) advances to play at No. 2 Tucson Canyon del Oro (23-3, 18-0) in the semifinals Thursday at 6:30 p.m. with a chance to send the team back to 4A finals for the second time in three years. The Wolves lost the 2019 finals to Greenway.

“It’s an awesome feeling getting back into the final four,” said Estrella Foothills coach Jennifer Gonzales. “And I don’t know, they’re just a phenomenal team. They just never say die. Just when you think that ball’s going to hit the floor, someone got a hand on it. Fun to watch. Fun to coach. I’m just so blessed to be able to come into the gym with them every day.”

Senior outside hitter Emma Barber, who starred as a sophomore on the 2019 team that made it to the finals, said this year’s team has put in a lot of mental and physical preparation to be back in the final four.

“Obviously with COVID last year, things were difficult. We had to get ourselves back on our feet this year. It’s kind of like a new team, and honestly, I knew we could do it,” Barber said. “It was a matter of sticking to it and keeping our minds in the game. We’ve been watching film beyond film and talking about it, practicing for it. We just need to continue doing that for the teams to come… just preparing ourselves for it, staying alive, going all out during practice.”

The team has only lost one set in its last 14 matches.

Tuesday’s victory over Flagstaff was more of a back-and-forth affair than the final 3-0 tally would indicate, with momentum swinging as either team strung together long runs of points.

The second set was the only one that came down to the wire, being tied at 22, then 23, then 24. Estrella Foothills junior middle hitter Angelee Bawek snapped the tie, earning back-to-back kills to secure the set for the Wolves 26-24.

Bawek’s first kill came when she blocked a Flagstaff spike in the middle of the net and then dumped the ball softly back over the net. The following kill came in the same spot at the front of the net.

Bawek rose up for a block but was all alone at the net and spiked the Flagstaff kill attempt into the empty spot in the center of the Eagles floor to clinch the second set.

“Oh my gosh. I love her,” Barber said of Bawek’s clutch kills. “You know, she gets the job done. She’s a very big asset to this team and… you can trust her.”

Barber added that the team needed those kills to “bring us back to life.”

Gonzales said Bawek’s back-to-back kills helped the middle hitter find her rhythm and “set her in motion for the next set.”

Flagstaff coach Beth Haglin said a lot of momentum swung on the final few points of that neck-and-neck set.

“Could have gone either way tonight, I think if we had pulled out the second set, who knows what would have happened? They just got some momentum off of that, and it really hurt us,” Haglin said.

It was the usual suspects who led the Wolves to victory in Tuesday’s quarterfinal. Barber led the team with 11 kills and five aces. Sophomore middle blocker Aubrey Goodere had eight kills and Bawek had six.

As usual, junior defensive specialist Jazzlee Acosta led the team in digs with 16 Tuesday, and junior setter Raegan Moran led the team in assists with 29.

The Wolves took full control to start the third set without the back-and-forth scoring runs that the first two sets had seen. Barber contributed to that early domination with three aces within Estrella Foothills first six points in the set.

Estrella Foothills led 24-11 when Flagstaff strung together one last run of five straight points to narrow the gap to 24-16, but it was too little too late. The run did force the Wolves to call a timeout, but out of the timeout, Goodere earned the final kill to seal the victory.

“You know, they’re a great group of kids and they fight,” Haglin said about her players’ last-ditch effort in the third set. “They’ve been fighting since they were freshmen in high school. That’s the type of kids they are. And it was really nice to see them even be down and still believe that they could do it. And it says a lot about them as quality people and that they’re just going to be fighters for the rest of their lives.”

The most dominant period for Flagstaff came midway through the first set. After Estrella Foothills went on a 7-1 run, the Wolves’ offense went dormant for the next 10 rallies. The

Eagles started with a 5-0 run that ended as a 7-3 run where the Wolves’ only points were gifted by the Eagles on serving errors.

“They’re very well disciplined,” Haglin said of the Estrella Foothills team. “I felt like they came in with a good plan and they executed it. I feel like we kind of made some mistakes from a passing standpoint and gave them some easy balls, and you can’t give a team that caliber easy balls, especially when they have good hitters all across the board. So, we made our fair share of mistakes, they made their share, and I felt like it was back-and-forth both ways.”

It was a somber scene on the Flagstaff side after the season-ending loss. Several of the nine graduating seniors tried to smile through tears as the group posed for a photo commemorating the last time they’d play together. Haglin said she’d been coaching one senior, Gracelyn Nez, since Nez was nine years old.

The winner of Estrella Foothill’s semifinal against Tucson Canyon del Oro will play the winner of No. 1 Scottsdale Notre Dame and reigning 4A champion, No. 4 Tucson Salpointe Catholic, who also play at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The championship match will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The Wolves did not play any of the other three remaining teams during the regular season. They lost to Scottsdale Notre Dame in the quarterfinals of last year’s playoffs.

Mark Carlisle
Associate Editor | Daily Independent
@mwcarlisle

mcarlisle@iniusa.org

Mark is passionate about accurately informing his readers to what is happening in their community. He also loves reading and writing about sports. Mark has worked for Independent Newsmedia for five years. He married his high school sweetheart, adopted a boxer mix, and awaits his first child.