Bobcats’ First Match Win, Falcons’ First Set Win Cap Off a Thrilling Night of High School Volleyball

Sep 26, 2021 6:00 AM PST

By Dexter Zinman

PHOENIX – It was a night of firsts. A rejuvenated Central High School won its first match of the season at home Wednesday night. Carl Hayden Community had to settle for the consolation prize of its first set win of the season. 

The Central High School Bobcats (1-1, 9-1) defeated the Carl Hayden Community Falcons (0-1, 0-8) in four sets (25-15, 25-20, 24-26, 25-12). It was the Bobcats’ second conference match of the season.

“Feels good. Feels really good,” Bobcats coach Laura Phillips stated. “The girls have worked hard all season and it’s good to see it all come together.” 

The Bobcats were boosted by the return of some of their varsity starters. The team has undergone massive lineup rewrites due to many starters being academically ineligible to play.

“Some people have been able to come back,” Phillips said, but added that, “a majority are not able to resolve it with their teachers.”

One of those boosts came from senior Paola Fonseca, who led the team with nine kills. Fonseca remained eligible to play this season, and she’s taken on a leadership role as one of the team’s few seniors. 

“She’s a good leader,” Phillips noted. “She’s really come into her own as a captain.” 

Fonseca led the Bobcats’ offense despite her still recovering from a quad injury she suffered her sophomore year.   

“I can’t really jump at my full potential, so right now I’m really relying on my kills,” Fonseca said. 

Despite what was at the time their seventh consecutive loss, Carl Hayden Coach Andrew Scott was proud that the Falcons won their first set, a thrilling 26-24 extra point victory. 

“Seeing that W in sight gets that energy up for us.” Scott said. 

The Falcons came tantalizingly close to their first set win in the second set, at one point trailing Central only 24-22. However, an officiating mistake caused two of Carl Hayden’s points to be removed. Carl Hayden lost the set 25-20. 

“The ref had caught the opposing team out of rotation twice, but it was a referee mistake…so after the two points were given, they pulled them back from us,” Scott explained. 

The Falcons did not lose their energy from that moment, instead using it as a rallying point. 

“We built off of the energy that we had being that close, and then I think we carried that energy into the third game to take us to that W,” Scott said. 

One area where Carl Hayden succeeded against the strong Central defense was serving. The Falcons had 11 aces, five more than The Bobcats’ six. 

Senior Casey Lazcano led the Falcons with four aces. Sophomore Ashley Lazcano recorded three consecutive aces in the third set.  

Serving power wasn’t always a positive for Carl Hayden, however, as they also led Central in service errors 16-14. 

“Practice practice practice. [We’ll] take care of our serves, we’ll work in a lot more serve time in our practices,” Scott remarked. 

“Serve receive is very important,” Central’s coach Phillips added. “Right now we still have a lot of players that are ineligible, and that’s been hurting our serve receive so we threw in some underclassmen, some sophomores and juniors and they performed really well.” 

Central senior Kayla Bedonie recorded five of the Bobcats’ six aces. 

Defensively for the Falcons, junior Britzia Arguelles recorded 17 digs as libero. Casey Lazcano added four digs of her own, including a very impressive one off her leg. 

Junior libero Kenessa Beaird led the Bobcats in digs with 14. Paola Fonseca contributed four digs of her own.

Fonseca realizes her well-rounded playing ability is part of what makes her such a good role model on and off the court for the Bobcats’ younger players. She’s proud to be one of their alternating senior captains.   

“It means a lot,” Fonseca said. “I realize I’m a senior now, I have to step it up.”   

Carl Hayden Community went on to lose their eighth in a row against La Joya Community Thursday. They play Fairfax on Tuesday in a section home game. 

Central High School plays another section home game against Sierra Linda on Tuesday.