Sam Valenti is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Metro Tech High School for AZPreps365.com.

The Knights of Metro Tech High School defeated the Rattlers of North Canyon 3-1 on Tuesday night in Phoenix. Metro Tech improved to 4-4 overall and 2-1 in 5A Metro region play, while North Canyon fell to 2-5 overall and 1-2 in region play.

While the match didn't go the full five sets, it was a thriller from beginning to end. The four sets went 25-23, 26-28, 25-17 and 25-23 in favor of the Knights, with only the third set being won convincingly.

Metro Tech head coach Bryan Heckler praised his team for playing better as the game went along.

"I thought that we made some good adjustments," Heckler said. "We cleaned up our serves, we cleaned up some of our errors especially in the fourth set, which I think was really helpful. We also put pressure on the other team and extended our lead which was good."

The first set was a back and forth affair, with neither team being able to pull ahead of the other until the very end. With the score tied at 23, the Knights scored two straight points to take the all-important first set.

The second set saw various momentum changes, as just when it seemed that one team was surely going to win the set, the other came right back with a hot streak of their own. At one point, North Canyon held a 16-9 lead, only for Metro Tech to rattle off five points to cut the lead to two. Later on, with the Rattlers winning 19-15, the Knights responded by taking a 20-19 lead, and subsequently got to set point leading 24-22. However, North Canyon kept on fighting and denied Metro Tech the chance at a 2-0 advantage. In the end, the Rattlers evened up the match, winning 28-26.

Despite losing the marathon that was the second set, Metro Tech was undeterred, jumping out to an 8-5 lead and not looking back. It won the third set 25-17, largely because of a point streak of seven that stretched its lead to 20-12.

Metro Tech junior Alyssa Cuevas said losing the second set helped the team perform better in the final two sets.

"I believe that helped us push ourselves more because you could have a different outcome," Cuevas said.

The final set was largely owned by Metro Tech, and while North Canyon showed some great resiliency at the end to make it close, the Knights finished off the Rattlers 25-23.

"We could not pick up a free ball," said North Canyon head coach Kinsey Pease after the match. "They were killing us on free balls, we weren't rotating enough in order to get into correct position to receive that, which caused a lot of chaos when we should've been converting on those balls and getting more kills off of that."

Metro Tech (4-4 overall, 2-1 in region) will be on the road for its next game, taking on Casa Grande in Casa Grande on Thursday, while North Canyon will host McClintock in Phoenix, also on Thursday.