Keller Brown is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Higley High School for AZPreps365.com

Higley’s girls volleyball team entered their contest against Casa Grande firmly in the playoff race at #16 in the 5A standings. The Knights solidified  their place for the postseason with a sweep over the Cougars, winning 25-7, 25-12, 25-9. 

Tuesday’s win on Senior Night felt good for Higley coach Tyler Kraemer, but he knows the hardest path is still ahead of his team.

“We don’t have time to mess around, we have to be ready to go,” Kraemer said. “We have Williams Field on Thursday, and then playoffs after that. We got to be ready to go.”

Kraemer’s team felt that same mindset going into the game, as the Knights came out and dominated early. 

Highlighting the first set win was senior Rae Katz, who had four consecutive aces towards the end of the set to close out the Cougars. Finishing with eight aces, perfecting her serves in practice has been key for Katz’s dominance.

“We definitely practice serving a lot in practice,” Katz said. “We have little tape on the antennas, and we have to serve below it, so that helps with my form. Just seeing where they are at, and where they are lining up, I serve it where they are not.”

Katz’s serving helped set the tone for the rest of the Knights, as senior Tanner Robinson picked up where Katz left off in the second set, tallying six of her 11 kills to put the Knights up two sets to none. 

Robinson had kills in different forms, some soft hits and some hard strikes, which is a split-second decision for her. 

“It’s more in the moment,” Robinson said. “I look at the court before I even hit the ball, see where my opponents are, and I just go where they aren’t.“

Robinson posted four aces and two blocks to go with her 11 kills. 

Katz noted how she, Robinson and her team setting the tone early helped keep them focused throughout the sweep. 

“We are all trying to be our last score, to minimize how many points they get on us,” Katz said. “Coming out that strong, we were like ‘OK, they are not going to get past one more serve than us, or one more point than us.’ It keeps us fired up.”

The Knights hope to keep that same fire as they transition towards postseason play, as Kraemer knows that the attention to detail gets even more crucial now. Kraemer relayed that to his team late in the third set. 

“We’re going to go back, analyze numbers, look and see rotations, all that kind of stuff,” Kraemer said. “My thoughts right now is I want to be open with subs, get people in there that are producing, balling out, and go with those that are producing the best. I want to win as much as we possibly can.”

Kraemer usually is calm on the court, not showing a ton of emotion. In between the second and third set, he let out a little dance towards his players, which got a fun reaction from the Knights’ seniors.

“Every now and then I get to have fun with them, too,” Kraemer said. “A lot of time as the head coach you just don’t get to have fun, and you get to be the bad guy. I want them to know that I care about them.”

Higley (9-7, 5-4) closes out the regular season against Williams Field on Thursday at 6 p.m. Casa Grande (2-14, 0-9) travels to Casteel on Thursday at 6 p.m.