Mountain View aces Mesa for back-to-back region titles
October 27, 2020 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365
For the fourth consecutive season Mesa High and Mountain View were the major combatants for the 6A East Vally Region girls volleyball title. Mesa won in 2017 and 2018 and Mountain View, after Tuesday night's sweep of the match and season series, repeated its 2019 feat.
With a relentless serve - no matter who did the honors - Mountain View finished a perfect region season at 10-0 with a 25-22, 25-12, 25-21 victory over Mesa at Toro Gym. Mountain View, ranked #5 Tuesday in the lastest 6A power rankings, is 12-2 overall. Mesa, No. 14, fell to 9-4, 8-2 region.
(Mountain View) has a great server in Brekyn (Goodman)," Mesa coach Amy Strawn said. "We knew she'd get a few on us. But we didn't expect everybody else to. We had trouble with serve receive and serving tonight. We can't afford to have that happen. When we did put it in play, I loved how we played. Our rally play was great. We didn't get in enough rallies."
Mountain View rang up 17 aces for the match led by Goodman with eight, Briley Decker with four and Ashley Reed three. When Goodman wasn't wreaking havoc on Mesa from the service line the senior outside hitter powered her way to a team-high 12 kills. Teammates Elle Tingey (6) Reed (6) and Decker (5) made the eveining a nightmare for the Jackrabbits. It came down to too many points surrendered without challenging the Toros. Mesa served aggressively often as well and notched eight aces, but it also had 14 service errors. Trying to play from behind most of the night other than early in the second set. made it impossible to overcome the Toros.
"We were streaky with our serving," Mountain View coach Clark Fleming said. "With us it's a lot of risk/reward. A little more reward tonight."
Mountain View's Brekyn Goodman on the attack late in the match with Mesa High. (AzPreps365 photo).
Mesa's best start and best chance to win a set was the lopsided second. The Jackrabbits broke on top 8-4, but were outscored 21-4 the rest of the set. Nearly half of those 21 points came via Toro aces or Jackrabbit service errors.
Mesa's standout was sophomore outside Jazlyn Jackson. Jackson finished with six kills.
"I really liked how she played tonight," Strawn said. "Jazlyn plays with no fear and does her job. We are a young team with very little size. We've surprised some people this year."
Mountain View has one match left in the regulare season, a home date vs. Basha on Nov. 3. Mesa finishes the regular season next week with a pair of home matches - Desert Ridge Nov. 3 and Queen Creek Nov. 5.