Spelman, Durango oust Centennial

Kelly O'Quinn admits the thought crossed her mind that Thursday would be the final time she would be on the bench for the Durango girls volleyball team.

But O'Quinn, who said she is retiring after coaching the boys volleyball team this spring, will have to stay for at least one more match.

The Trailblazers overcame a 12-1 deficit in the second game and went on to sweep host Centennial 25-23, 31-29, 25-12 in the semifinals of the Class 4A Sunset Region playoffs. The win puts Durango, the defending state runner-up, into the regional final against Bishop Gorman at 7 tonight at Centennial.

"I thought this would probably be my last match because collectively they are a better team than we are," said O'Quinn, who began coaching at the school when it opened in 1993 with assistant Bob Kelly. "It's crazy. At the start of the season I didn't even think we'd make the regional tournament. ... To me, all those hours we put into the team, it's like it paid off."

Senior Hayley Spelman led Durango (24-11), the No. 2 seed from the Southwest League, with 37 kills and 14 digs, and Morgan Malone had 37 assists.

Spelman, a Stanford recruit, had 14 of her kills as the Trailblazers won a seesaw first game. But it was Game 2 that proved to be the turning point.

Behind the strong serving of Morgan Vieira, Centennial (27-3) raced to a 12-1 advantage and appeared to be in control. But after a Durango timeout, the Trailblazers mounted a huge comeback.

"I made some really stupid mistakes, and I put the ball into the net, which I shouldn't do," Spelman said. "I knew that. I told myself I need to come back from this and control the game. I came back and said, 'OK, let's do it.' "

Durango led 20-19 and had four match points but didn't close it out. The Bulldogs, who went undefeated in the Northwest League, then wasted two match points because of service errors. With the game tied at 29, Jourdan Rowsell had a kill for Durango, and a hitting error closed the game.

"We never miss serves, and we missed two chances to close out the game," Centennial coach Shannon Alia said. "I don't even have the words. It feels like a nightmare and I can't wake up. I feel like I'm watching an ugly movie and I want to push rewind."

With Centennial unable to recover from the emotional swing, Durango turned a 7-6 lead in the third game into a 21-9 advantage as Spelman had six kills.

"I truly feel if we won the (second) game we would have won the match," Alia said. "My girls stopped working together as a team, and that has been our strong point all season."

• Bishop Gorman 3, Palo Verde 2 -- Dannielle Diamant finished with 24 kills and Liz Manthei 46 assists as the Southwest No. 1 Gaels (28-7) rallied in the final two games to upend the Panthers 25-22, 21-25, 18-25, 25-7, 15-12 in the Sunset Region semifinals.

Palo Verde's passing was solid early, but the Panthers (24-11) struggled with serve-receive in Game 4 as Alexis Sanchez and Liz Lisowski combined for five aces for Gorman. After falling behind 6-1 in the deciding game, Palo Verde rallied to take an 11-9 lead only to see the Gaels' serving take over again.

Gorman scored six of the final seven points, and Sanchez closed the match with two consecutive aces.

"We got jitters, and we couldn't serve-receive," Palo Verde coach Greg Siqueiros said. "Defensively we played the scrappiest we've played, but the passing issues we've had all year crept back in."

Nicole Gneiting led the Panthers with 17 kills. Tori Lounsbery had 25 assists to go with seven digs and two blocks.

SUNRISE REGION

Taylor Richard had 12 kills, 11 digs and three aces as defending state champion Silverado (28-5) moved one step closer to the state tournament with a 25-12, 25-14, 25-18 win over Del Sol (16-11) in the Sunrise Region semifinals.

Silverado, which also got eight kills and five aces from Kaitlin Keathley, will meet Green Valley in the final. The two split their Southeast League matches.

• Green Valley 3, Coronado 0 -- Siga Appelgate had 15 kills and Jena Chavez 28 assists as the Gators (27-10) rolled to a 25-21, 25-22, 25-13 win over the Cougars (17-17).

Kristen Herlosky, Alexa Herlosky and Kuulei Piena each had six kills for Coronado.