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Vikes sweep region matches over Mayer

Late night at the homecoming dance. Week filled with activities from building floats to playing powderpuff football. An early alarm clock Saturday morning to head to Joseph City.

The Williams High School volleyball team had all of those distractions to deal with while playing eight varsity matches last week, including two road trips.

Still, the Lady Vikings fared pretty well, posting victories at Grand Canyon, at home vs. Mayer and missing the championship round at the Joseph City Tournament by only one match.

"I saw a lot of heart, they were so tired," said Williams volleyball co-coach Ken Edes. "They never gave up. They always go after every ball, even when things are not going our way. That's what has carried us so far."

Williams started the Joseph City Tournament Saturday with three pool play matches. The Lady Vikings downed Fredonia in straight games, lost to Joseph City in two games and then beat Ash Fork in three games.

In the playoff rounds, Williams opened with a three-game victory over Seligman before falling to Orme, 15-7, 15-4.

The Lady Warriors went on to meet Joseph City in the championship where the host Wildcats won the first-place trophy.

Edes said the team was obviously tired, but played well against Joe City in the loss. The Lady Vikes scored nine points on the Wildcats in the first game, something no other team had done in the tournament.

Williams won its first two matches in 2A Canyon Region action Friday with victories over Mayer of 15-13, 15-8 and 15-9, 11-15, 15-10.

The Lady Vikes cruised in the first match for the straight-game win. In the second match, the team came out in the first game and rallied to win by six points.

Mayer led 9-2 early behind a good string of serves. But the Lady Vikings came right back to score 13 unanswered points.

During that stretch, Sheena Lann had five straight points serving. Other standout servers included Rachel Fitzgerald, Teri Stevens and Amy Christman to end the game.

Mulvihill was a force at the net with several nice hits. The Vikings also had good blocking up front, particularly by foreign-exchange student Helen Schimanowski.

Williams carried over its momentum into the second game of the match by vaulting out to an 11-4 lead, thanks mostly to unforced errors by Mayer and good serving by the Vikings.

But then the team seemed to run out of gas as the Wildcats rallied for 11 straight points and the second-game win. That forced the third and deciding game of the match, won by Williams.

The victories were important for Williams in the conference standings. The Lady Vikings go to 2-4 with the losses coming earlier this season to Mogollon and St. Johns. The team will have an important matchup with Orme this coming Tuesday.

"It's not outside our potential to beat them," Edes said about the Orme matches. "We took Mogollon in that first game to the last two

points ... and we're going to try to gear up for Orme."


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