The Lobos were hungry for a win in their victory over Joseph City during the first round of the Class 1A state volleyball tournament Tuesday night.
“We made very minimal mistakes, which is very impressive for a volleyball game,” coach Brenda Somoza said. “They wanted it tonight. They came out here ready to fight.”
Patagonia’s 25-20, 25-19, 25-21 triumph means the team that earned the No. 6 seed in the tournament is now moving on to the quarterfinals. Next up is third-seeded Rock Point at 1 p.m. on Friday at Coronado High School in Scottsdale.
The Arizona Interscholastic Association’s state tournament bracket archive dates back to 1999, and a search of the archive indicates that this is the first state tournament victory for Patagonia dating back for those 27 years.
Tuesday’s victory followed on the heels of a 14-3 regular season and a loss to St. David in the 1A South regional tournament last Friday.
Rock Point, located within the Navajo Nation in the far northeast corner of the state, went 17-0 during its regular season and has swept three postseason matches. The Cougars needed five sets to defeat 14th-seeded Williams on Tuesday by scores of 25-20, 25-22, 20-25, 13-25, 15-6.
Patagonia, meanwhile, will go back to its usual routine for the next two days: practice, practice, practice.
“We had some shanked balls,” coach Somoza said. “We work on that constantly. We’ll do that again tomorrow.
“Passing, hitting, serving. We try to hit all of the skills.”
