No. 2 Salpointe held off No. 7 Ironwood Ridge 3-2 on Wednesday to advance to the Division II semifinal round to be played against No. 3 Arcadia on Monday. The semifinal round and the championship match are set to be played at the Casteel High School complex in Queen Creek with the final scheduled for April 30.

Arcadia beat No. 6 Coconino by the same 3-2 margin to set up the semifinal with the Lancers. On the other side of the bracket, No. 4 Flagstaff beat No. 5 Trivium Prep 5-0 and No. 8 Estrella Foothills upset No. 1 Gilbert Christian 3-2. Flagstaff will face Estrella Foothills in that semifinal match to be played at the same time.

Salpointe (15-0) beat Ironwood Ridge 4-1 in a section match on April 15 but the quarterfinal match proved to be much more difficult. Genesis Othon and Sadie Price gave the Nighthawks a 1-0 lead from the fifth flight over Shyla Forgacs and Elizabeth Bruzzone but Salpointe’s Annabella Bruzzone and Reagan Burgle tied the match up from the fourth flight over Kendyl Shields and Laura Cubillas.

Salpointe’s third flight (Callen Hutchens and Nicole Monge) put the Lancers up 2-1 with a win over Lydia Litkenhus and Briana Craig but Maria Lemas and Aubrey Schultz tied the match up with a win for the Nighthawks from the second flight over Brooklyn Burgle and Eleanor Sharp.

With the match tied 2-2 all attention was placed on the top pairs and the deciding match went to a third set where Amelia Bartfalvi and Chloe Zhang overcame a couple of set points to take the set 16-14 over Ameila Cutting and Kallie George.

The state pairs tournament starts on Monday, May 5 and Amelia and Zhang and Cutting and George are expected to be seeded highly.

Salpointe beat Flagstaff 3-2 to captured the D-II team championship last year. It was the fourth straight championship for the Lancers under former head coach Heather Moore-Martin. Former Lancer Jalynn Ransom I in her first year as the head coach of the program.

Ironwood Ridge finished the season with a 12-4 record and this if the fourth trip to the quarterfinal round for the Nighthawks and the first in the D-II level under head coach Bill Lang.