Cienega’s quest for the program’s second state championship in four years fell short Saturday.
The second-seeded Bobcats were swept by top-seeded Queen Creek Casteel 3-0 in the Class 5A state title match at Mesa Skyline High School.
Saturday was the first time Cienega (20-1) lost all season — and the first since March 2020, just before the pandemic ended last season. It was also the first time Cienega was swept in a best-of-five match since April 3, 2018, when the Bobcats were thumped by Mountain View.
With the boys volleyball season coming to an end, Cienega head coach Heather Mott, who’s had a 163-55 record (.748) since taking over in 2014, including a 58-2 record (.967) in the 5A Southern Region, will send off a star-studded senior class headlined by middle blocker — and Grand Canyon University commit — Matthew Meeker-Hackett, outside hitter Austin Keen and setter Aiden VanHoesen.
The 6-foot-7-inch Meeker-Hackett finishes his Cienega career as one of the top players in state history. He led the Bobcats in kills and blocks this season.
For Queen Creek Casteel, Saturday’s win brought the first-ever state championship for the program, which played its first season in 2017, the last time Cienega won a state title. The Colts (20-1) ended their season with a 18-match winning streak.
Sabino one win away from title
Sabino’s softball team (19-1) will aim for its second straight state title when it takes on No. 3 Payson on Monday at Hillenbrand Stadium.
They’ll do so with a first-year coach, Kyle Howell, who also happens to be the Sabercats’ athletic director.
Howell took one month prior to the season opener, when Sabeana Romero — a Sabino assistant — accepted the head coaching job at Scottsdale Community College and brought along the Sabercats’ head coach, Vanessa Arandules, to be her assistant.
Howell said he didn’t consider coaching the Sabino softball program until a few current players approached him about the idea. He was certainly qualified: Howell served as the head baseball coach at Hesston College in Kansas and was the pitching coach for College of the Ozarks in Missouri. He also served as a strength and conditioning coach in the Washington Nationals’ organization, and was an associate scout for the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers.
“It’s been incredible,” Howell said Saturday of his first season in charge. “We’ve had great kids and they’ve made this a ton of fun. It’s been about their ability and hard work that they’ve put in up until this point. I’m just trying to implement little things so they can get better every day.”
Howell experienced plenty of nail-biters during his time in collegiate and pro baseball, but nothing like Friday’s 15-inning, 1-0 win over Empire in the Class 3A state semifinals. He called it “the single greatest game I’ve ever been a part of for both sides. … I felt like every inning we were close offensively.”
Senior outfielder Izzy Armijo led off the bottom of the 15th inning with a single and then scored on an RBI double by Riley Nielson. Howell said Nielson “may have had the single greatest performance I’ve ever seen” after the star junior pitcher worked 15 shutout innings without walking a batter, then drove in the winning run. She ranks fourth in the state in strikeouts (197) and wins (16).
Sabino suffered its first loss of the season in its regular-season finale, falling 10-0 to a Salpointe Catholic team that’s undefeated and will play Monday for the Class 4A state title.
Since then, the Sabercats have beaten their three postseason opponents by a combined score of 20-1.
The Sabercats will need another rock-steady performance to win another state title. Howell isn’t worried about his players being nervous — or that the Sabercats will play at Hillenbrand, one of the cathedrals of college softball.
“You can put them in Oklahoma City on the field there at the Women’s College World Series, and I don’t think these kids blink,” he said. They’re prepared for the moment now and they’ve earned it."
Baseball game Monday
Sabino’s fourht-seeded baseball team will play its 3A state final against No. 2 Phoenix Odyssey Institute Monday at 4 p.m. at Tempe Diablo Stadium. For complete coverage, visit Tucson.com/highschools.
