Morenci girls welcome Lobos on Monday

Raymundo Frasquillo Photo/Gila Herald: The Wildcats’ starting line-up awaits the match to begin in Pima. Standing are, from left, Mia Ontiveros (7), Alicia Cruz (8), Cambry McCauley (1), Kay’Leigh Blair (3), Sonia Roybal (5), Alizabeth Aguilar (16), and Celina Manuz (22). The Wildcats host Hayden on Monday (Oct. 17) and Tombstone on Wednesday (Oct. 19), and visit Elfrida Valley Union on Thursday (Oct. 20).

By Raymundo Frasquillo

MORENCI – The No. 18 Wildcats (9-4, 2.5122, 7-2 East Region) return from the Fall Break by hosting the 1A Copper Region Winkelman Hayden Lobos on Monday, Oct. 16.

Hayden (2-12 seeding, minus 8.2984 rating, 1-7 region) is ranked No. 30 of 40 1A teams and 5th of six in the region standings. Hayden is ahead of No. 32 Dishchii’bikoh (2-9, minus 10.5565, 1-7) and behind No. 4 Heber Mogollon (10-3, 7.0983, 8-0), No. 7 Joseph City (9-5, 3.9915, 7-1), No. 9 Fort Thomas (10-5, 3.1960, 5-3), and No. 33 Superior (2-13, minus 11.1289, 2-6) in the region.

Winkelman Hayden Lobos

The Lobos have a 3-set win over Queen Creek San Tan Foothills on Sept. 28 and a 5-set win over Dishchii’bikoh on Sept. 13.

Hayden has 3-set losses to Duncan on Aug. 29, Mogollon on Sept. 6 and on Sept. 21, Phoenix Valley Lutheran on Sept. 8, Joseph City on Sept. 15 and on Oct. 15, Fort Thomas on Sept. 16 and on Oct. 3, Chandler Lincoln Prep on Sept. 27, and Scottsdale Cicero Prep on Oct. 12l and in four sets to Tucson Desert Christian on Sept. 19 and to Superior on Oct. 4.

The Lobos have two road region matches at Superior (Oct. 18) and Dishchii’bikoh (Oct. 20) plus host Duncan (Oct. 25) to complete their regular season.

Raymundo Frasquillo Photo/Gila Herald: Morenci first-year head coach Renee Still applauds the on-court efforts of the Wildcats during the 5-set win over Pima.

Morenci Wildcats

Morenci returns to Wildcat Memorial Gymnasium following 13 road matches, five in region pairings plus eight in tourney pairings, and winning 22 of 40 sets during Fall Break. Results of August and September matches had the Wildcats winning 30 of 52 sets.

During their journey, the Wildcats defeated Pima in five sets (25-13, 23-25, 17-25, 27-25, 15-11) on Oct. 4 and Willcox in three (25-23, 25-20, 25-22) on Oct. 6, fell in four to Tombstone (25-22, 17-25, 11-25, 19-25) on Oct. 10, downed Santa Rita in three (25-16, 25-8, 25-6) on Oct. 11, and succumbed to Benson in five (26-24, 23-25. 16-25, 25-18, 12-15) on Oct. 13.

The remaining matches for the Wildcats include hosting Tombstone (Oct. 19), visiting Valley Union (Oct. 20), visiting Bisbee (Oct. 25), and hosting Pima (Oct. 27).

2A Top 10 Rankings:

The statewide 2A top 10 rankings listed on Oct. 14, was Horizon Honors No. 1 (11-1 seeding, 14.1209 rating), Chandler Prep No. 2 (10-1, 12.6331), Kingman Academy No. 3 (11-1, 12.5794), Trivium Prep No. 4 (9-3, 11.9163), Scottsdale Prep No. 5 (10-3, 11.1446), Tombstone No. 6 (12-1, 10.4234), Rancho Solano Prep No. 7 (8-3, 10.1930), Phoenix Country Day School No. 8 (10-3, 9.8313), Saint Johns No. 9 (9-2, 8.8893), Phoenix Veritas Prep No. 10 (7-5, 8.7982). Phoenix Arizona Lutheran dropped from No. 10 to No. 11 (9-4, 7.9731).

A week earlier (Oct. 7), the top 10 were Horizon Honors No. 1 (10-1 seeding, 13.8230 rating), Trivium Prep No. 2 (9-2, 13.0418), Chandler Prep No. 3 (10-1, 12.8559), Scottsdale Prep No. 4 (10-3, 11.1106), Tombstone No. 5 (11-1, 10.2388), Kingman Academy No. 6 (10-1, 9.9118), Phoenix Country Day School No. 7 (10-3, 9.7527), Rancho Solano Prep No. 8 (7-3, 9.7258), Phoenix Veritas Prep No. 9 (7-5, 8.5882), and West Region Phoenix Arizona Lutheran No. 10 (8-4, 7.7495). Saint Johns dropped from No. 7 to No. 11 (7-2, 6.3632).

2A East Region Standings:

The standings before Monday contests are the Tombstone Yellow Jackets (18-6 overall, 12-1 seeding, 7-0 region) first, Morenci (16-10, 9-4, 7-2) second, the Pima Roughriders (5-19, 5-8, 5-3) third, the Benson Bobcats (12-10, 8-6, 6-4) fourth, the Willcox Cowgirls (12-8, 8-5, 3-4) fifth, the Bisbee Pumas (1-23, 1-13, 1-8) sixth, and the Santa Rita Eagles (0-20, 0-13, 0-8) seventh.

A week earlier (Oct. 10), the standings were Tombstone (15-3 overall, 11-1 seeding, 6-0 region) first, Morenci (10-5, 7-3, 5-1) second, Willcox (12-8, 8-5, 3-4) third, Benson (10-9, 6-5, 4-3) fourth, Pima (3-19, 3-8, 3-3) fifth, Bisbee (1-21, 1-11, 1-6) sixth, and Santa Rita (0-18, 0-11, 0-7) seventh.

Raymundo Frasquillo Photo/Gila Herald: Morenci junior Madison Crawford awaits a teammate’s serve and positions her arms for a possible block.

The region member state rankings as of Oct. 14 were No. 6 Tombstone (12-1 seeding, 10.42384 rating), No. 18 Morenci (9-4, 2.5122), No. 20 Benson (8-6, 0.8647), No. 21 Willcox (8-5, 0.7929), No. 26 Pima (5-8, minus 0.7944), No. 43 Bisbee (1-13, minus 15.4500), and No. 46 Santa Rita (0-12, minus 24.0227).

In region matches played to date, Tombstone (7-0) has 3-set wins over Bisbee (25-10, 25-12, 25-12) on Sept. 13, Willcox (25-11, 25-15, 25-9) on Sept. 20, Santa Rita (25-6, 25-8, 25-6) on Sept. 22, Bisbee (25-15, 25-12, 25-17) on Oct. 6; 4-set wins over Benson (25-17, 22-25, 25-16, 25-14) on Oct. 4 and Morenci (22-25, 25-17, 25-11, 25-19) on Oct. 10; and a 5-set win over Pima (19-25, 16-25, 25-11, 25-22, 15-10) on Sept. 15.

Morenci (7-2) has 3-set wins over Tucson Santa Rita (25-8, 25-17, 25-13) on Sept. 15, Bisbee (25-18, 25-19, 25-15) on Sept. 28, Willcox (25-23, 25-20, 25-22) on Oct. 6, and Santa Rita (25-16, 25-9, 25-6) on Oct. 11; a 4-set win over Benson (25-20, 20-25, 25-23, 28-26) on Sept. 20; and two 5-set wins over Willcox 3-2 (25-14, 23-25, 25-21, 16-25, 15-7) on Sept. 13 and over Pima (25-13, 23-25, 17-25, 27-25, 15-11) on Oct. 4.

Willcox (3-4) has 3-set wins over Bisbee (25-22, 25-13, 25-9) on Sept. 22, Pima (25-13, 25-18, 25-11) on Sept. 26, and Santa Rita (25-9, 25-15, 25-8) on Oct. 4.

Pima (5-3) has 3-set wins over Bisbee on Sept. 20 and Santa Rita (25-21, 25-6, 25-13) on Sept. 28, and Bisbee (25-15, 25-10, 25-11) on Oct. 13 plus two 5-set wins over Benson on Sept. 22 (25-23, 25-22, 11-25, 12-25, 15-8) and on Oct. 10 (25-23, 18-25, 11-25, 25-15, 15-7).

Benson (6-4) has 3-set wins over Santa Rita (25-5, 25-6, 25-6) on Sept. 13, over Bisbee (25-10, 25-11, 25-20) on Sept. 15, over Santa Rita (25-12, 25-11, 25-7) on Oct. 6, and Bisbee (25-16, 28-26, 25-20) on Oct. 11 plus a 4-set win over Willcox (21-25, 27-25, 25-21, 25-18) on Sept. 28 and a 5-set win over Morenci (24-26, 25-23, 25-16, 18-25, 15-12) on Oct. 13; and Bisbee (1-8) defeated Santa Rita 3-0 (25-15, 25-10, 25-23) on Sept. 26.

2A East Region remaining matches:

Region pairings this week include Bisbee at Willcox and Tombstone at Santa Rita on Monday, Oct. 17; Bisbee at Santa Rita, Tombstone at Morenci, and Willcox at Pima on Wednesday, Oct. 19; and Willcox at Tombstone on Thursday, Oct. 20.

Next week, Pima visits Tombstone on Oct. 24; Morenci visits Bisbee, Benson visits Willcox, and Santa Rita visits Pima on Oct. 25; and Pima visits Morenci, Tombstone visits Benson, and Willcox visits Santa Rita on Oct. 27.