Centennial nips Bonanza in Sunset semifinal

Bonanza's Jesse Mackay and Centennial's Spencer Olsen met at the center of the court for the fifth-game coin flip, grinned and patted each other in the chest.

Despite the smiles after four thrilling games of their Sunset Region semifinal matchup, the club volleyball teammates and high school volleyball rivals knew one of them would be going home heartbroken.

But neither expected Mackay to be quite so devastated.

The Bulldogs defeated the Bengals 19-25, 25-20, 20-25, 26-24, 15-13 on Thursday night at Silverado High after Centennial opposite hitter Drew Smith's serve on match point tipped off the net and fell to Bonanza's side.

"This is really hard. I'd have rather gotten blown out than to lose like this," said Mackay with tears in his eyes. "I'm going to be saying, 'Only if...' for a long time. That serve ... aww ... that's not how you want to lose -- you at least want to make the other team earn the point."

Mackay's heart might have broken a bit earlier, though.

With the score tied at four in the fifth game, the Bulldogs (19-3) went on a momentum-altering five-point streak, culminating with a questionable kill that Bonanza coach Erik Davis argued was out of bounds.

The Bengals (15-5) responded with a 9-3 streak of their own, though, taking a 13-12 lead before Centennial scored three straight points.

Mackay, who finished with 54 assists, credited the team's resiliency to an attitude forged through numerous injuries, including one that sidelined standout opposite hitter Jeremy Anderson for the season.

"In the past, we weren't mentally strong enough to come back from something like that," Mackay said. "This year, through the injuries, through everything we've had to go through, we're strong enough now."

Losing Anderson certainly cost Bonanza, but not as much as the daunting presence of three Bulldogs: Olsen (27 kills), Drew Staker (12 kills) and Drew Smith (10 kills).

"We were still big at the end of the fifth game," Centennial coach Scott Nelson said. "We got a couple blocks late, and with us being big, Bonanza was forced into a couple unforced errors."

The Bulldogs advance to the Sunset Region final to face Palo Verde at 5 p.m. today at Silverado. The Panthers (20-2) defeated Southwest Division champion Sierra Vista 25-20, 22-25, 25-21, 20-25, 15-11 in the semifinals Thursday. Tyler Capko had a match-high 25 kills, including seven in the fifth game, and Adam Nieman had 47 assists to lead Palo Verde. Josh McClain led the Lions (18-3) with 15 kills.

Coronado (20-1) swept host Silverado (11-10) 25-19, 26-24, 26-24 behind Eric Boman's 14 kills, advancing to the Sunrise Region final against Las Vegas (17-4), which defeated Basic (18-4), 22-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-27, 15-10. Jonathan Dugan led the Wildcats with 33 kills.