STATE TOURNEY: Top-seeded Wildcats, Bulldogs confident entering tourney
Las Vegas High and Centennial are no strangers to the Class 4A state volleyball tournament.
The Wildcats (18-2) and Bulldogs (17-3) have played in the tourney for the past three years, but both teams took No. 2 seeds after falling in their respective region finals.
Not this time around.
The Sunrise champion Wildcats will play this year as a top seed, facing Sunset runner-up Shadow Ridge (18-2) at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the 4A state semifinals at Palo Verde. Sunset champion Centennial will face Coronado at 7 p.m. in the other semifinal. The winners will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the final.
“We haven’t won region since 2005, and every year we go in thinking, 'Maybe we don’t have to win this game — we can just come back in state and win,’ ” Las Vegas team captain Braeden Wilson said. “But (this year), we really wanted to win.”
Winning the title has given both teams new confidence, especially Las Vegas, which handed Coronado its first loss of the year. The Cougars (20-1) lost only five games in the regular season and had played just one five-game match — an April 20 thriller at Silverado — before the Wildcats’ sweep in the Sunrise final.
“It’s a great feeling (winning the region),” Las Vegas hitter Tyler Wilson said. “It’s been awhile. Coronado’s took it the last couple of years, so it feels good to take it from them.”
The Bulldogs knocked off Northwest League champion Shadow Ridge in Centennial’s third straight region final.
“The last two seasons, we’ve lost so that’s been kind of hard,” Centennial team captain Matt Kurtz said, “but to finally get some hardware back to Centennial, that feels really good. Now we’ve just got to look forward to the state championship.”
