5A volleyball: Campo Verde conquers Sunrise Mountain in sweep
November 1, 2018 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365
#3 Campo Verde used two main ingredients Thursday night to advance to the 5A volleyball semifinals.
A heavy helping of Caitlin Dugan mixed with a sampling of Claire Fisher spelled doom for #6 Sunrise Mountain. The senior hitters were on fire as Campo Verde pulled off a quarterfinal sweep of Sunrise Mountain, 25-18, 25-21, 25-23 at Campo Verde.
Campo Verde (26-16) moves on to face #2 and once-beaten Millennium in a 5:45 p.m. semifinal hosted by Campo Verde. The other semi is set for 7:45 p.m matching No. 5 Horizon and top-seed and defending champ Sunnyslope. Sunrise Mountain, which was the 4A runner-up last season to Salpointe, finished the season 23-12.
Dugan, who ran her season total for kills to 486 with 28 in the three-set match, was unstoppable. Whether front row or back and even with an average set, she found the floor to the tune of a .533 hitting percentage. Fisher added 11 kills and hit .308. Dugan had six kills in the first set, 10 in the second and 12 in the third. Dugan got a handful of back-row kills, but Fisher dominated the attack when she was positioned in the front row.
Junior setter Jordyn Campbell was busy with 47 assists, 13 digs. and three aces. Hattie Patton led the defense with 20 digs and Allison Hage chipped in with 11 digs.
"We definitely want that (championship) ring," Dugan, who is headed to college next fall at Texas Tech. "We had really good practice yesterday. And our student section gave us a lot of support."
Campo has reached the semis before, even the title match in 2013. But this will be the first visit to the semis under coach Taylor Bader, who made her Coyotes' debut in 2014. Sisters of three current players played on the 2013 runner-up team -- Dugan's sister, Audra Beth; Alyssa McDowell's sister, Misha; and Campbell's sister, Madison.
"We had a good match tonight," Bader said. "Caitlin, well this is why she's going to Texas Tech. And Claire was very good as well."
Campo Verde led virtually all the way in the opening set, breaking a 9-9 tie and cruising to the end of the set.
A 5-0 run by Sunrise Mountain in the second set had the Mustangs up 12-7. Campo Verde called a rare time out and in just a few points was even at 14 and trailed only one more time in the set (15-14). Fisher finished the set with back-to-back kills.
Campo never trailed in the third set, but it was close to the finish. Dugan made it 24-21 with a kill, but a kill and ace by Sunrise Mountain's Payton Harmann pulled the Mustangs within 24-23. A third attempt at match point for Campo was what else -- a Dugan kill.
Madison Harris and Adna Mehmedovic led Sunrise Mountain i(unofficially) with seven kills each.