Cienega boys volleyball squad 'carrying that legacy' for last year's team affected by pandemic

When Heather Mott took over Cienega High School’s boys volleyball program in 2014, she hit the reset button.

Mott, who also coaches Cienega’s girls volleyball team in the fall, eliminated the Bobcats’ junior varsity team and reduced the program to one roster with 12 players.

She also began looking far and wide for players. Mott and former Bobcat Charlie de la Vera sought athletes from all sports across the CHS campus, whether they played football, basketball or track; they even took on wrestlers.

“Anybody that we saw could have potential in volleyball as an athlete, we came up to them and said, ‘Hey, you come and believe in us, and we’re going to take athletes and then teach those athletes how to play volleyball,’” Mott said. “That’s kind of been our philosophy all along. Every single day, I walk on campus and look for athletes.

“There’s so much of a football brotherhood that forms on the team. Because of that, the selfishness goes away and the ‘me’ attitude goes away. These boys embraced each other and became family. For us, that has been the piece that has been so significant, and it’s carried forward.”

Attracting multi-sport athletes has given Cienega a 163-54 record (.751) since Mott took over seven years ago, including a 58-2 record (.966) in the Class 5A Southern Region. Mott’s Bobcats haven’t lost a divisional match since 2018.

This year’s team might be the best one yet. The second-seeded Bobcats (19-0) will host third-seeded Gilbert at Cienega in Thursday’s Class 5A state semifinal match. Cienega and Salpointe Catholic are the only Tucson-area team remaining in the boys volleyball state playoffs; the Lancers will play at Phoenix Northwest Christian in Thursday’s Class 4A state semifinals.

Winning a state championship has been Cienega’s motivation since last March, when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered the spring sports season after just nine matches. The Bobcats were 8-1 when the season was called off in mid-March; the team’s seniors graduated without getting a chance to play for a title.

This year’s team is doing its best to honor them. Those Bobcats have written the names of seniors who couldn’t compete last year on their shoes.

“We had high hopes for last year,” Mott said. “We felt like we were about to make a deep run last year, and when we got cut short, it was devastating because we had a lot of the pieces in place. This group is kind of the remnants of that group. … They’re carrying that legacy forward for those seniors.”

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The Bobcats certainly have the talent to win it all. Cienega star middle blocker Matthew Meeker-Hackett, the brother of Arizona Wildcats punter Jacob Meeker-Hackett, is second in Arizona with 100 blocks. The 6-foot-7-inch Grand Canyon University commit is “very physical with the net,” Mott says; he also leads the Bobcats in kills (164).

“He’s somebody that gets better every single day he’s in the gym,” Mott said. “And the cool thing about him is that he’s a great leader and one of our captains. He makes other kids better every time he’s in the gym. … He’s been huge in that respect. He just brings out the best in people.”

Other seniors such as outside hitter Austin Keen and setter Aiden VanHoesen have been vital to Cienega’s success, which has only dropped four sets the entire season. Since April 14, the Bobcats have claimed 36 sets while only losing one.

Of course, dominance can sometimes lead to complacency. Cienega’s last lost set came in the regular season finale to Rincon/University, a team the Bobcats had swept at home earlier in the season.

“We were having a hard time finding the court with anything we were doing in that first set,” Mott said. “We came in with a complacent arrogance and this ‘We’re going to win no matter how we play’ attitude, and those experiences help us learn.”

Mott instilled the “You’ve earned nothing” mantra on her team to keep the Bobcats from entering auto-pilot mode. They haven’t lost a set in the postseason, and have shown flashes of the celebrated 2017 squad that delivered the program’s first-ever state championship.

If Cienega can beat Gilbert on Thursday and top either Queen Creek Casteel or Gilbert Williams Field on Saturday, the Bobcats will finish 2021 with a 21-0 record — and end the year with a perfect tribute to last year’s club.

“There’s a very special feel with this group of boys. They’re similar to that 2017 group where there are so many other things they’re playing for other than themselves,” Mott said. “There’s a special feel, so we’ll see how far that special feel can take us. … These boys have put in the time and deserve to have the success they’re having even if it’s over at this point. They deserve all of that.

“That’s how we felt about the 2017 team. They worked so hard and overcame so much and that’s how we feel about this group, too.”