Hunter Kelley is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Higley High School for AZPreps365.com.

 

Higley's girls volleyball team evened its season record at 3-3 with a four-set victory over the Paradise Valley Trojans (4-2) Thursday night.

The visiting Knights won the first two sets, 25-17, 25-15, before the Trojans found their rhythm,  quickly took a 12-point lead, and took the third set, 25-15.

“Volleyball is a mental sport," Higley senior Kenna Rollins said. "As soon as something blocks you, and if one person crashes, especially like the captain or an important person on the court, everyone just starts to follow and then it’s a domino effect with everyone. So as soon as a mental block hits, everyone falls.”

An early time out taken by Higley coach Tyler Kraemer in the 3rd set helped get his team back into the right mindset.

“He told us to stop playing stupid and get out of our heads,” Knights senior Kensley Pearce said.

With emotions running high in the 3rd set, Rollins shared this about her team: “I trust my teammates. I think as soon as we get a play everyone just falls into place. It works out even if we're behind. We always pick it up and get back in there.”

That's exactly what the Knights did. They were unable to overcome their slow start in the, but they sufficiently grouped back together to win a nail-biting 4th set.

The end of set play in the 4th went through numerous rallies that kept the game close until the very end. 

The Knights started their separation with a huge spike by Pearce that gave her team a boost of much-needed energy to close out Paradise Valley.

With the set tied at 21,  Rollins made a crucial serve that put the Knights in the right mindset to close the game out.

Ultimately, the Knights won with a kill from Rachel Schulteis over the center of the net.

“I knew Paradise Valley was gonna be pretty good," Kraemer said. "I saw their record coming in and they won a bunch of games, so I knew they were gonna be good.

"The only surprising thing was how poorly we played in game three. We looked like we never played volleyball before, and I wasn’t a big fan of that.”