The Trojan varsity girls volleyball team has had an exceptionally successful regular season. The girls are headed to State with an overall record of 25-12, and a current win streak of 7 wins. Freshman Elyse Wolf shared, "I think the team did very well in the regular season, I think we held our own."
Outside of regular season play, the Trojans have not done very well during their tournaments as well, which were all selected to help prepare the team for state by giving them competition against teams from higher divisions all across the southwest.
They struggled a bit during the House of Payne Tournament early in the season, pulling out only two wins out of the 8-game tournament, but faced a lot of tough competition from 4A, 5A, and 6A teams in Arizona.
Right before Fall break the team played in their second tournament, the Nike Tournament of Champions. This is an elite tournament drawing in the best teams from across the country. The Trojans only pulled away two wins, one against South Medford (OR) and once against Sacred Heart Prep (CA), with a score of 2-0 for both matches. Close losses came from other teams across Nebraska, California, Oregon, and Arizona – all of which play in higher divisions than the Trojans.
Quickly following the Nike TOC was the Southern California Volleyball Invitational, which took place during Fall Break. The team won 3 out of their 5 games, falling only to Cathedral Catholic (CA), who is currently ranked #14 in the nation, and Torrey Pines (CA), who is ranked #2 in the San Diego section, all divisions.
Coach Tyler Trathen is looking forward to a State title as he looks back at the teams' progress this year. He shared, "Varsity had very tough tournaments this year. We battled in the House of Payne tournament this year against the top teams in AZ and finished 9th out of 16 teams. We then played in the Nike TOC which had 7 of the top 25 teams in the nation. We finished a respectable 23rd out of 72 teams in the tournament. Finally, we played in the SoCal Invitation in San Diego and finished 8th out of 24 teams only losing to the #1 and #2 teams in the California. During the regular season we stayed undefeated for all of our games and did not drop a set in our region. We finished the season 25-12 and now we look forward to competing at state for a title this year."
Senior Taylor Miser stated, "I'm excited to go to State! I think it will be really fun. Our team is ready to turn it on and take it all the way!"
Come cheer on the Trojans as they are headed to State and watch how these high level tournaments prepared them for the state championship match. Hopefully they will come out as 2024 State Champions!
State Tournament Bracket:
https://azpreps365.com/brackets/volleyball-girls/3a/1444-2024-girls-volleyball-3a-conference-play-in
