Both Fountain Hills and Arizona College Prep's volleyball coaches anticipated a five-set match Tuesday. They got it, but the outcome was one of those rare back-end sweeps.

Arizona College Prep, sluggish and over-matched early,  settled down and managed a 15-25, 13-25, 25-22, 26-24, 15-12 triumph in the 3A North Central Region battle at Arizona College Prep.

"I told my assistants this was probably going to be a five-set match," Fountain Hills coach Peter McGloin said. "We dominated the first two sets. As the third set moved on we lost our edge. We weren't as aggressive and played scared."

Fountain Hills, ranked fifth in 3A in the latest power rankings, fell to 4-3 overall, 2-3 in region. ACP entered the match at #8 and improved the Knights to 6-2, 3-2. Both schools toil in one of the toughest regions in 3A. Their region also contains two of the top four teams in the rankings - No. 1 Northwest Christian and No. 2 Valley Christian. NWC and VC have already swept Fountain Hills and ACP in earlier matches.

ACP coach KJ Struz, clad in a sumo wrestler costume emphasizing Halloween Week at ACP, was ecstatic with the come-from-behind win.

The decisive set was tied eight times, the final time at 12-all. An ACP 4-0 run at the end allowed it to walk away the winner. Kills from Julie France, Elise Jimenez and Aliyah Jones keyed the finish.

"We get in ruts," Struz said. "Tonight it was early and hung around a couple of sets. We have managed to fight out of ruts. Tonight that's what we did. Played much better the last three. More of the way both (coaches) thought the match would be."

Dominating the stat sheet for ACP was versatile junior Shelby Blixt. Blixt was second in kills (6) behind France's team-leading nine. Blixt added 12 digs, seven aces and eight assists. Setter Wynter Ray had 12 assists and 14 digs.  Libero Zi Kuang led in digs with 20 and Amanda Ahyat checked in with 14.

The final three sets were tight all the way. ACP's France clinched the third with a kill. Fountain HIlls held a 17-14 lead in the fourth set, but ACP rallied for the lead and three set-point chances. The final tie was at 24 after the Falcons landed an ace. A Fountain Hills service error and attack error finished the set and sent the match to a fifth.

                                                                                     Fountain Hills Mia Kohoutek sends another of her first-set aces against Arizona College Prep. (AzPreps365 photo)

Fountain Hills blitzed ACP the first two sets with strong serving the focal point. The Falcons posted seven aces in the set - five from setter Mia Kohoutek. Hitting errors and rotation errors plagued ACP in the second set with the result no better than the opening set. Fountain Hills kill leaders unofficially were Meghan Bearer (13), Grace Abrams and Brooke Williams with 7 each and Evie Perkins with 6.