Xavier begins its bid for a fourth straight 5A-I state girls volleyball championship Tuesday night with a revamped lineup that has continued to win although more laboriously than earlier in the season.
The Desert Ridge girls volleyball team wanted nothing better than to keep the momentum of the last couple seasons going Tuesday night as the 2010 regular season winds to a close.
For the Jaguars that means trying to qualify for the state tournament for the third year in a row.
Although the elite bracket was won by an out-of-state school, powerful La Jolla (Calif.) Country Day, girls volleyball players from seven Arizona schools (eight in all) were selected to the 21-member, all-tournament team at last weekend\'s Nike Tournament of Champions girls volleyball tournament held in Chandler, Gilbert and Tempe.
Last season in their 4A-I Desert Sky battle, Apache Junction chewed up Queen Creek at the line of scrimmage rushing for 480 yards and giving up only 56 yards on the ground in a 52-14 win over the Bulldogs. That grinding out of real estate came after Queen Creek grabbed a quick 14-0 lead in the first period against the Prospectors.
The outcome Friday night was reversed in slightly different fashion.
Someone was going to win two in a row Thursday night at the 5A team badminton championship. The question: Would it be Xavier or Chaparral?
The Firebirds answered in the affirmative and are state champs after beating the Gators, 5-2, in the title match at Horizon High School.
Earlier in October Cibola football coach Lucky Arvizo claimed a 20-14 win over then-ranked and then-unbeaten Basha by his Raiders was the biggest triumph in school history.
This wa not a coach getting excited over the moment. A Yuma school winning several games in a season or a couple more than it loses is news.