Pinal Today

American Leadership Academy-Ironwood's boys volleyball team scored its first postseason win, PinalCentral reported.

The Warriors (12-5) ranked 11th and swept the 22nd ranked Peoria (5-11) in 4A Conference tournament, with the scores 25-15, 25-20 and 25-21, the story said. The team is only in its second year of existence, according PinalCentral.

“I didn’t want to give them any expectations,” head coach Shawn Close said, according to PinalCentral. “I just wanted them to remember to have fun. This is the first time that we’ve hosted a postseason game and I didn’t want to put any extra pressure on them in terms of them having to do this and having to do that. I just wanted them to remember to have fun, remember what you’re supposed to be doing and do your role.”

The players are "blossoming," the coach told PinalCentral.

“We’ve kind of switched in terms of playing a little more of a fast tempo offensive and we’ve moved some guys around," he said. "We feel like it gives us a much better chance to succeed going forward and hopefully make a deep run in the postseason.”    

In recent practices, the coach has reminded the players "that this is supposed to be fun," Close said. "You can see that when they have fun, it’s a lot better, cleaner, faster volleyball which just makes it much more fun to watch.”

The team is going to try its best to make it to the state championship, the coach said, according to PinalCentral.

“That’s been the expectation from the very beginning," he said. "It’s going to be a great match and it’s pretty much going to come down to which team is having the most fun and which team is putting the most pressure on the other team.”