by Chris Pfaff, Xavier Sportswriter

#1 Xavier defeated #4 Sunnyslope in straight sets on Thursday night at Xavier’s Activity Center, 25-18, 25-15, 25-12 — three down, one to go. The Gators face one more hurdle to overcome before they can fulfill the season-long goal of winning the State Championship, something they last experienced in 2018.

In 2018, Xavier defeated Corona del Sol to claim the 6A State Title, and the Aztecs will be their opponent on Saturday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Since 2018, Corona has made just one trip back to the Championship title match, and they won. 2024 will be Xavier’s first trip to the State Final since 2018.

The theme of Thursday night’s contest would have to be the suffocating effect of Xavier’s blocking. While watching the match, I could feel the constant barrage of blocks and kill shots.

The frequency of Xavier blocks made it very difficult for Sunnyslope to establish its own power game. In the quarterfinals versus Queen Creek, Xavier thoroughly dominated the Bulldogs but only recorded seven blocks. Against Sunnyslope, they recorded eighteen blocks. The suffocation intensified every time Xavier blocked one or more Sunnyslope kill attempts during a rally, and there were many.

Multiple times throughout the match, Xavier strung together two or three points in a row by rally-stopping blocks. An example of this came in the first set: Tessa Larkin for point 15, Allison Dunnion for point 16, and Annemarie O’Gara teamed up with Dunnion for point 17.

Dunnion finished with 6 blocks, O’Gara 5, Larkin and Amari Frazier 3, Elle McCreery 2 , and Vivian Hickman 1.

Although they had twelve fewer kills than in the quarterfinals, many of the kills caused me to say “Wow!” out loud.

Larkin had 13 kills, several from the back row. McCreery was a dominating force with 9 kills to go along with her blocking at the net. Dunnion added 5 kills to her amazing blocking total. Hickman and Frazier both recorded 5 kills.

The Gators excelled in many aspects of the game on Thursday: amazing digs, nine service aces (Gracie Graf and Olivia Lentz three each), and saving balls caroming off of Xavier players. The focus, the effort, and the hustle were all on full display.

Tessa Larkin puts it away for the final point of the first set.

Vivian Hickman with the kill to secure the second set for Xavier.

Hickman seals the deal, awarding the 3rd set and the match to Xavier.
The announcer meant to say, “. . . and they move on to the State Championship Final”