Mustangs lose in first round of state volleyball tourney

Earning the No. 10 seed in the state tournament, the Sahuarita Mustangs’ volleyball team ended its season after a 3-0 loss (25-14, 25-11, 25-12) to seventh-seeded Notre Dame Prep last Tuesday in Scottsdale.

Despite the lopsided scores, coach Dan Komperda was impressed with his team’s performance.

“The team played well, and even though we were playing an extremely deep team — and the scoreboard was going against us — the girls kept doing their best and trying to fight back through deficits,” Komperda said. “I was real proud of our effort on Tuesday.”

In the loss, several performances stuck out for the Mustangs.

“On an individual level, Kecia Packard did break the single-season and career dig records at Sahuarita High School,” Komperda said. “For her final game, she had 26 digs, which was a big individual performance.”

Komperda had nothing but positive things to say about his team’s opponent in the first-round of the state tournament.

“Overall, Notre Dame is very strong. I’ll be very surprised if that team isn’t successful in their next match and goes to the Final Four.

“They had great ball control and passing, so it was really hard for us to get kills while they had weapons we couldn’t stop. They had one girl who we couldn’t even come close to stopping. We haven’t faced a hitter who dominated us as much as she did in that match.”

The last time the Mustangs faced the Notre Dame Prep Saints was in the 2007 State Tournament. Sahuarita, given a No. 4 seed, faced the No. 1 Saints in the Final Four, where the Mustangs lost in four sets.

Putting the early tournament exit this year aside, Sahuarita enjoyed a very successful season.

“I was very happy with the year,” Komperda said of his team. “We finished about where we wanted to in the regular season: Our goal was to be 13-4 and we ended up 12-5, so we weren’t too far off from our goal.

“We met our goals in the regular season, and we had some great chemistry this year on the team, which was enjoyable. Our girls really got along and had a good time playing together.”

Sahuarita will lose seniors Packard, Haleigh Householder, and Alexis Ortega, who will each be sorely missed by the team. Their contributions were crucial for the success of the volleyball team this season, and attempting to replace them will be no small task.

“It might have been a mismatch,” Komperda said of the loss against Notre Dame, “but I’m proud of our girls. We played very well, even though the score doesn’t indicate that. They dominated us on the scoreboard, but it was actually one of our best matches of the year. It was a very positive year for us.”

Andrew Kneeland is a junior at the Arizona Virtual Academy. He is an intern at the Sahuarita Sun.