Volleyball drops road match to Scottsdale 3-0

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The No. 20 ranked Arizona Western Lady Matadors Volleyball team (19-6, 9-2) suffered just its second straight sets defeat of the season, falling 3-0 to No. 1 (DII) ranked Scottsdale (18-0, 13-0) on Wednesday night.

Amanda Juliao led the Lady Matadors with nine kills while both Jazmin Cuellar and Gabriela Martensson each had eight kills in the loss.

The Lady Matadors fell behind early in the first set after Scottsdale scored four of the first six points eventually stretching the lead out to 12-5. After a timeout, the Lady Matadors went on a 4-0 scoring run to cut the deficit to 12-9. With the Lady Matadors trailing 18-14, the Fighting Artichokes scored seven of the final eight points to take the opening set 25-15.

Scottsdale came out fast in the second set, scoring the first 11 points before a Jazmin Cuellar block stopped the run. The Lady Matadors used a 3-0 scoring run to pull to within 23-16 on an Evelyn Trivino ace before Scottsdale finished the set off 25-17.

The Fighting Artichokes used a 7-1 scoring run to open the second set before the Lady Matadors scored six of the next seven points to pull to within a point at 8-7. Scottsdale came back to score eight consecutive points to build the lead back to 20-11 before back-to-back kills from Cuellar and Juliao cut the deficit to 20-13. Scottsdale finished the set off for a 25-17 win, taking the match 3-0.

Trivino ended the night with 23 assists while Juliao led the team in digs with 16 and Aly Reeser finished with 15.

The Lady Matadors head to Coolidge on Wednesday, October 25, to take on Central Arizona in the final regular season road match at 7:00 pm.