It was a reversal of fortune Saturday for Arcadia's girls volleyball team opposite Gilbert in the opening round of the 5A state tournament.

After three tight sets and owning a 2-1 lead at that point, the ninth-seeded Titans dominated the fourth to take a 3-1 win over the host, the No. 8 seed and frustrated Tigers. The scores were 23-25, 26-24, 25-23 and 25-13.

Arcadia (11-5) moves on to Tuesday's quarterfinals against top-seed and unbeaten Ironwood Ridge (15-0). Gilbert, the San Tan Region champs, finished 11-4. 

The teams played early in the regular season, and Gilbert was the better team that night after posting a sweep. Arcadia coach Jackie Bunker said her team had plenty of work to do after that match and strived to get better and more consistent.

The Titans proved their coach right.

"The first time we played them they served better than we did and that helped their offense work the whole match," Bunker said. "Tonight we served better than they did. We played better overall than last time. We've worked hard hitting the corners, and we were pretty successful with that."

Arcadia had plenty of ammunition on the attack with five players producing at least five kills and as many as 12. Unofficially, the Titans were paced by senior Lauren Sayre (12 kills), junior Ally Bolden (10), senior Grace Koss (8), sophomore Ryan Sheedy (6) and senior Vania Mendez (5).

Sayre and Sheedy are outsides and Bolden, Koss and Mendez are middles. Gilbert was led unofficially by outside hitter Naia Stewart with 20 kills, middle Sydney Mahon (10), outside Madison Cadden (8) and middle Macie Beaudoin (6).

Arcadia played mostly with the lead in the second half of each set. That made Gilbert play catch-up at in the pressure moments. 

Arcadia led the first set by the largest margin at 19-14, but Gilbert worked back to tie it at 20 and won with an Arcadia service error and net violation.

The second set was a carbon copy, save the ending. Arcadia built a 22-17 lead, got caught at 24, but came up the winner with a kill and ace.

Set three was the closest start to finish. The final tie, at 23, was the ninth of the set.

The Titans won with kills from Bolden and Koss.

Gilbert couldn't recover mentally from close losses in sets two and three. Arcadia used a 10-1 run to take command after the set opened in a 3-3 tie. 

The Titans' lead reached as much as 22-8.

Arcadia was in system more throughout the evening than Gilbert and particularly in the final set. Five players registered at least two kills each in the fourth set for Arcadia.

The final point of the match came via a red card issued to Gilbert coach Joe Hesse as his match-long frustration with one official boiled over.