Sophomore night spoiled by Scottsdale Artichokes 3-0
Rene Gomez
The T-Birds volleyball team lost in three sets against the Scottsdale Artichokes on Oct. 25 at Theo J. Heap Gymnasium.
The T-Birds’ overall record is 6-14 and have a 4-11 conference record.
With this game as the final home game of the season, Mesa celebrated sophomore night as this would be the last time some players will play at Heap Gymnasium.
“We were pumped up and we wanted to win for sure,” sophomore middle hitter Ryanne Willis said.
It was also an important game because the T-Birds can still qualify for the playoffs, but just winning games will not be enough.
“We’re this close to making postseason, but somebody else has to do something for us to get in,” head coach Brent Martindale said.
In the first set Mesa kept pace with Scottsdale never being down by more than three points until eventually losing by a 25-21 margin.
In the second the T-Birds had the lead for most of the time, but Scottsdale fought back late to take the set 25-23.
Mesa lost the third set 25-11 and the team was unable to establish any momentum.
“We committed some errors, but we just got to pull through and win the next one,” sophomore setter Natalie Elkins said.
Between the second and third set, Martindale took some time to give a speech about his players who will be moving on.
The T-Birds have five players who will leave Mesa after this year: libero Lindsay Logan, outside hitter Ashlie Mills, setter Mandi Stewart, Willis, and Elkins.
“We’ll miss them for sure,” Martindale said, “they’ve been a strong sophomore group and they’ve shouldered a lot of the responsibility.”
