Campo Verde's volleyball season opener was longer in coming than most teams this week. The Coyotes had matches cancelled Tuesday and Wednesday before getting to take their home floor Thursday for action. 

Campo Verde started fast, tailed off in the middle then found the formula for a strong finish in its 3-2 victory over 5A San Tan Region rival Casteel. Scores were 25-18, 25-17, 25-27, 21-25, 15-7.

"We're sort of young, maybe more so mentally," Campo Verde coach Tayler Bader-Peterson said. "Overall it was a good. We started strong early, but had trouble staying aggressive. The middle sets we started to play scared and timid. I told them we need to stay aggressive every point. We got back to that the last set."

The player of the match was Campo Verde middle hitter Addison Haluska. The junior, the top returning kills leader for the Coyotes, showed why. She registered 18 kills, hitting .394. She added four blocks and six aces. All was on display in the decisive fifth set.

Haluska contributed three kills, three aces and a block in the fifth. Sophomore outside hitter Brooke Boyko finished with 10 kills and three blocks and complemented Haluska in the final set with four kills, including the match winner. Sophomore outsides Cambry Wolynia and Gillian Bachali added 11 kills and nine kills, respectively. The defensive effort was led by Meilana Baker (eight digs), Boyko (seven digs) and Wolynia (six digs). Junior setter Hannah Van Winkle had 47 assists.

                                                                                        Casteel registers a successful block in the second set of Thursday's match. (Azpreps365 photo).

Casteel (0-3) played its third match in as many days. The Colts loses were to two top 5A programs - Centennial (3-1) and Horizon (3-0). Coach Kelsey Steuber saw her team shrug off defeat in the first two sets Thursday and fight off two match points in the third after leading most of that set to stay alive. Casteel led 3-2 in the final set, but a 7-0 Campo Verde run sealed the deal.

Colts' freshman outside hitter Jadyn Orava collected 10 of her team-high 16 kills (unofficial) in the third and fourth sets. Casteel struggled attacking in the first two sets with hitting errors a big part of eight total unforced errors in the first set and 10 more in the second.

Campo Verde stays with region foes next traveling to last year's region champ Gilbert on Tuesday. Casteel continues region play with a home match that day vs. Williams Field.