Raymundo Frasquillo Photo/Gila Herald: The entire Safford roster lined up to honor America during the playing of the National Anthem. The No. 14 Bulldogs fell in three sets to No. 5 Blue Ridge on Oct. 22. Safford welcomes top-ranked Snowflake for the regular season finale on Wednesday, Oct. 26.
Thatcher closes the regular season by upsetting No. 5 Blue Ridge
By Raymundo Frasquillo
SAFFORD – The Robert Abalos-coached Safford Bulldogs host the top-ranked Snowflake Lobos on Wednesday, Oct. 26. The Lobos bring a 14-1 seeding record into Norma Bellamy Gymnasium while the Bulldogs are 12-3. Snowflake is 9-0 in the East Region and Safford 5-2 in the South Region. The Lobos prevailed previously over the Bulldogs in two sets during pool play of the mid-September Snowflake Invitational.
The Bulldogs are at Palo Verde Magnet for a region match on Monday, Oct. 24.
Other South Region pairings this week are Tanque Verde at Catalina and San Miguel at Empire on Oct. 24; Empire at Tanque Verde, Palo Verde Magnet at San Miguel, and Sabino at Pusch Ridge on Wednesday, Oct. 26.
Snowflake Lobos
The Lobos have 3-sets wins over Tuba City (25-21, 25-17, 25-19) on Aug. 24, Gilbert Christian (25-20, 25-22, 25-12) on Aug. 26, Round Valley (25-5, 25-11, 25-12) on Sept. 8, Winslow (25-17, 25-21, 25-20) on Sept. 20, Show Low (25-20, 25-13, 25-17) on Sept. 27, Holbrook (25-9, 25-20, 25-10) on Sept. 28, Payson (25-16, 25-20, 25-19) on Oct. 5, Winslow (25-16, 25-10, 25-22) on Oct. 11, Payson (25-11, 25-19, 25-11) on Oct. 13, and Holbrook (25-10, 25-17, 25-19) on Oct.20; 4-set wins over Blue Ridge (18-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-18) on Aug. 30, Flagstaff (25-17, 23-25, 25-16, 25-19) on Sept. 12, and Show Low (27-25, 25-20, 13-25, 25-14) on Oct. 18; and a 5-set win over Valley Christian (25-19, 21-25, 26-24, 24-26, 15-8) on Sept. 6.
Snowflake’s lone seeding loss was in five sets to Thatcher (23-25, 25-19, 25-18, 24-26, 9-15) on Sept. 1.
The Lobos went 18-3 during three tourneys attended, 8-1 in Snowflake (Sept. 16-17), 4-1 in Scottsdale (Sept. 23-24), and 6-1 in Queen Creek (Sept. 30-Oct. 1). The sets won have been 82-16 (.837), 44-8 (.846) during seeding sets and 38-8 (.792) during tourney sets.
Snowflake has seniors Lily Lundberg and Kadee Penrod; juniors Mikelle Abbott, Addy Fisher, Macey Gardner, Braxton Jones, Livi Schneider, and Kloah Ulberg; and sophomores Chelsea Caskey and Gracie Ulberg on its roster.
Safford Bulldogs
Safford has 3-set wins over Tucson Cholla on Aug. 21, Sahuarita (25-17, 25-14, 25-23) on Sept. 6, Pima (25-13, 25-11, 25-10) on Sept. 19, Tucson Amphitheater on Sept. 26, Catalina (25-12, 25-9, 25-22) on Sept. 27, Flowing Wells (25-9, 25-15, 25-15) on Oct. 5, San Miguel Catholic on Oct. 11, and Empire on Oct. 20; 4-set wins over Sabino (25-13, 25-23, 22-25, 25-18) on Sept. 8, Pusch Ridge on Oct. 13, and Sabino (12-25, 25-15, 25-20, 25-20) on Oct. 18; and a 5-set win over New Mexico Silver (22-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-13, 15-7) on Sept. 13.
The losses are in three sets to Thatcher (13-25, 18-25, 18-25) and Blue Ridge (19-25, 13-25, 23-25) on Oct. 22; and in five sets to Tanque Verde (19-25, 25-16, 22-25, 16-25) on Sept. 22.
Safford went 3-3 during the Goodyear Estrella Foothills Wolves Classic (Sept. 2-3), 3-3 during the Snowflake tourney on Sept. 16-17, and 3-3 during the 2-day Florence Invitational (Oct. 7-8).
The Bulldogs are seniors Brianna Camarena, Jordyn Espinoza, Rene Holcomb, Emma Jarvis, Jaylenn Jurado, Paige Perea, and Jazzy Rios; juniors Mia Abalos, Jaidyn Espinoza, Marlena Gonzales, Jaidyn Mortensen; sophomores Breanna Arbizo and Marley Jurado; and freshman Hannah Schade.
Thatcher Eagles
The Eagles participated in 17 seeding matches and 18 tourney matches during three meets, posting 14-3 and 8-10 records, respectively. Thatcher won 44 of 59 (.750) seeding sets and 22-18 (.550) tourney sets, finishing a combined 66-77 (.857) for the regular season.
Thatcher defeated 11 opponents in three sets and three in five sets. The 3-set wins are over Sahuarita Walden Grove (25-11, 25-13, 25-16) on Aug. 31, Pusch Ridge (25-11, 25-14, 25-23) on Sept. 12, Pima (25-12, 25-10, 25-11) on Sept. 14, Tanque Verde (25-12, 25-10, 25-16) on Sept. 20, San Miguel on Sept. 27, Sabino (25-17, 25-17, 25-13) on Sept. 29, Safford (25-13, 25-18, 25-18) on Oct. 3, Palo Verde Magnet on Oct. 5, Catalina on Oct. 13, Empire (25-10, 25-12, 25-23) on Oct. 18, and Blue Ridge (26-24, 25-23, 25-23) on Oct 22.
The 5-set wins were over Snowflake (25-23, 19-25, 18-25, 26-24, 15-9) on Sept. 1, Tucson Mica Mountain (25-20, 26-28, 15-25, 25-22, 15-9) on Sept. 7, and Pusch Ridge (25-27, 22-25, 25-19, 25-23, 15-10) on Oct. 11.
The Eagles also have a 5-set seeding loss to Tucson Canyon del Oro (25-9, 25-22, 22-25, 27-29, 10-15) on Sept. 6 and 3-set losses to Chandler Valley Christian (19-25, 20-25, 20-25) on Sept. 17 and Tanque Verde (23-25, 19-25, 21-25) on Oct. 20.
In the three 2-day meets attended, Thatcher went 1-6 at Chandler (Sept. 2-3), 3-2 at Mesa Red Mountain (Sept. 9-10), and 4-2 at Queen Creek Benjamin Franklin (Sept. 30 – Oct. 1).
Thatcher’s varsity team is seniors Madden Bingham, Molly Brown, Matti Lopeman, Marley Motes, Keyera Smith, Makenzie Sweet, and Ashlyn Thompson along with juniors Avery Bingham, Macey Carter, Makenzi Ferrin, Maci Layton, and Marli Lopeman. The Eagles are coached by Kim Orr.
3A Top 10 Rankings
The statewide 3A rankings listed on Oct. 21 had East Region Snowflake No. 1 (14-1 seeding, 23.0874 rating), South Central Region Chandler Valley Christian No. 2 (13-1, 22.5840), North Central Region Phoenix Northwest Christian No. 3 (14-1, 20.6352), North Region Tuba City No. 4 (13-1, 17.9389), East Region Lakeside Blue Ridge No. 5 (12-2, 16.3510), South Region Thatcher No. 6 (13-3, 15.5376), West Region Buckeye Odyssey Institute No. 7 (15-1, 13.0357), South Central Region Gilbert Christian No. 8 (11-4, 14.2890), North Region Kayenta Monument Valley No. 9 (13-2, 13.4398), and South Region Tanque Verde No. 10 (11-3, 11.6108).
The 3A rankings listed on Sept. 30 had Snowflake No. 1 (9-1 seeding, 20.0310 rating), Valley Christian No. 2 (10-1, 19.7139), Northwest Christian No. 3 (8-1, 17.3197), Thatcher No. 4 (8-2, 16.9275), Blue Ridge No. 5 (8-1, 15.2204), Odyssey Institute No. 6 (10-1, 11.5462), Gilbert Christian No. 7 (8-3, 11.1714), North Central Region Camp Verde No. 8 (8-2, 10.4359), Tuba City No. 9 (3-1, 10.2830), and East Region Winslow No. 10 (6-3, 9. 2389).
3A South Region Standings
The 9-member region standings are the Tanque Verde Hawks (18-9, 11-3, 6-0) first, the Thatcher Eagles (24-13 overall, 14-3 seeding, 7-1 region) second, the Safford Bulldogs (18-9, 12-3, 5-2) third, the Sabino Sabercats (20-7, 11-5, 4-3) fourth, the Pusch Ridge Christian Lions (8-18, 6-9, 4-3) fifth, the Empire Ravens (5-15, 4-11, 2-4) sixth, the San Miguel Catholic Vipers (4-12, 4-12, 1-5) seventh, the Palo Verde Magnet Titans (3-18, 2-14, 1-5) eighth, and the Catalina Trojans (1-14, 1-14, 0-7) ninth.
The region member state rankings as of Oct. 21 were Thatcher as No. 6 (13-3, 15.5376), Tanque Verde as No. 10 (11-3, 11.6108), Safford No. 14 (12-2, 10.2296), Sabino No. 21 (11-5, 4.7969), Pusch Ridge No. 27 (6-8, 0.6192), Empire No. 35 (4-11, minus 5.5778), San Miguel No. 39 (3-12, minus 13.3398), Palo Verde Magnet No. 43 (2-14, minus 16.1103), and Catalina No. 45 (1-14, minus 22.7045).
Rankings at the end of the first week (Sept. 30) for region members were No. 4 Thatcher (8-2 seeding, 16.9275 rating), No. 11 Tanque Verde (6-3, 9.1110), No. 12 Safford (7-1, 8.8898), No. 16 Sabino (8-3, 6.0915), No. 29 Pusch Ridge (4-5, minus 0.5612), No. 32 Empire (3-7, minus 2.9669), No. 41 San Miguel (2-8, minus 10.3185), No. 43 Catalina (1-6, minus 12.5789), and No. 44 Palo Verde Magnet (0-11, minus 16.4225).
In region matches played to date, Tanque Verde (6-0) has two 3-set wins over San Miguel (25-11, 25-10, 25-5) on Oct. 3, Pusch Ridge (25-23, 25-13, 25-22) on Oct. 5, Sabino (25-20, 25-22, 25-16) on Oct. 17, Palo Verde Magnet (25-8, 25-9, 25-20) on Oct. 18, and Thatcher (25-23, 25-19, 25-21) on Oct. 20, plus a 4-set win over Safford (25-15, 16-25, 25-22, 25-16) on Sept. 22;
Thatcher (7-1) 3-set wins over San Miguel (25-7, 25-13, 25-9) on Sept. 27, Sabino (25-17, 25-17, 25-13) on Sept. 29, Safford (25-13, 25-18, 25-18) on Oct. 3, and Palo Verde Magnet on Oct. 5, Catalina on Oct. 13, and Empire (25-10, 25-12, 25-23) on Oct. 18 plus a 5-set win over Pusch Ridge (25-27, 22-25, 25-19, 25-23, 15-10) on Oct. 11;
Safford (5-2) 3-set wins over Catalina (25-12, 25-9, 25-22) on Sept. 27, San Miguel on Oct. 11, and Empire on Oct. 20 plus 4-set wins over Pusch Ridge on Oct. 13 and Sabino (12-25, 25-15, 25-20, 25-20) on Oct. 18.
Sabino (4-3) 3-set wins over Empire (26-24, 25-21, 25-20) on Sept. 27, Catalina (25-7, 25-15, 25-14) on Oct. 3, San Miguel (25-16, 25-16, 25-17) on Oct. 5, and Palo Verde Magnet (25-9, 25-7, 25-7) on Oct. 17;
Pusch Ridge (4-3) 3-set wins over Palo Verde Magnet on Sept. 27, Catalina on Sept. 29, and San Miguel (25-5, 25-6, 25-10) on Oct. 18 plus a 4-set win over Empire (25-21, 25-19, 23-25, 25-23) on Oct. 3;
Empire (2-4) 3-set wins over Palo Verde Magnet on Sept. 29 and Catalina on Oct. 4; and San Miguel (1-6) a 4-set win over Catalina (25-22, 21-25, 25-23, 25-16) on Oct. 20.
Remaining region matches include Tanque Verde at Catalina, Safford at Palo Verde Magnet, and San Miguel at Empire on Oct. 24; and Empire at Tanque Verde, Palo Verde Magnet at San Miguel, and Sabino at Pusch Ridge on Oct. 26.
