Canyon upends rival Randall to stay in district championship hunt
With only two weeks left in the regular season, the Canyon Lady Eagles made some noise putting themselves back into contention for the District 4-4A championship earning a season split with rival Randall getting a big-time four-set win, 25-19, 20-25, 25-15, 25-22, at a jam packed Leslie Broadhurst Gymnasium at Randall High School on Tuesday night.
This win was clutch for Canyon (19-14 overall), which now sits only one game back of Randall (24-13) for the District 4-4A lead. The Lady Eagles are now 9-2 in the league with only three games remaining while the Lady Raiders suffer their first loss dropping to 10-1.
“This win was huge for us for a number of reasons,” Canyon head coach Sara Morath said. “It kept us in the running for a district title, but I’m also so proud of this team because it is showing that the hard work they’ve put in all year is paying off. This team is different than some past teams I’ve coached. They are so calm and relaxed and I love their competitiveness. We’ve been doing our homework and we were prepared coming into this matchup and it was nice to reap the benefits.”
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Canyon set the tone taking control in the first set and getting the 25-20 victory. Randall, which has been the standard of the district from the start, didn’t waiver rallying back to win the second set. The Lady Eagles didn’t flinch taking back the momentum coming out strong in the third set for the win and nailing down the fourth set to put the match away.
“We started off great and that first set,” Morath said. “Randall was able to take that second set, but we bounced back and stayed focused the entire time. It’s easy to get rattled, especially at Randall. That’s a tough gym to play in but we made the adjustments we needed to and started the third set solid. That was huge for us and I think gave us what we needed the rest of the way.”
Canyon was big on the front row the entire night with the power game and the block. Outside hitter Laney Jones was on her game and Randall didn’t have an answer. Jones put together an amazing outing at the net knocking down a game-high 19 kills and tacked on a stellar defensive effort with 18 kills for a double-double. Jones also added two blocks with an ace.
Neelie Henson played a great compliment to Jones on the front row adding 10 kills and was big on the block with five, and Klair Stone chipped in with eight kills and 18 digs. The Lady Eagles passing was working between the duo of Brylee Henderson and London Gibson who combined for 40 assists. Gibson totaled a team-high 21 with McElroy handing out 19. Leader Aiva Kerr did her job on the back row as well with 19 digs as well as tacking on an ace.
“We have a lot of great players on this team,” Morath said. “They all play together and that makes them special. We run a 6-2 offense and each player knows their role so well. Laney (Jones) gets the kills and played a great game but the middle blockers did a great job and connected well with our setters. Everyone did their jobs.”
Randall freshman Chloe Brown had a great game registering a double-double knocking down 12 kills and hit the floor for 17 digs. Kambree Gonzalez was strong on the back row with 19 digs and served superbly with four aces while Amber Matthews added 12 kills. Benett Moore led the Lady Raiders with 18 assists and Lexy Lujan added 10.
Next up
Randall has to turn around quickly for another showdown at rival West Plains at noon, Saturday. Canyon will play host to Dumas on at noon on Saturday.