Ironwood Ridge beat Campo Verde in epic fashion Tuesday night at home after the Coyotes battled back from an 0-2 deficit to force a deciding fifth set where the Nighthawks prevailed 15-13. Ironwood Ridge improved to 6-3 in power-ranking matches while Campo Verde fell to 3-8.

Ironwood Ridge started the day ranked No. 10 in the 5A Conference after the initial AIA rankings for the season were released and Campo Verde came in at No. 20 after the Coyotes ripped off three wins in a row prior to the trip to Tucson. The Nighthawks have now won six in a row with No. 22 Cienega (3-5) visiting on Thursday. Things won’t get mush easier for the Coyotes with No. 15 Higley (5-3) on tap Wednesday night at home.

Led by 36 assists from Taylor Crawford, the Nighthawks appeared to be in control of the match after building a 24-18 lead in the first set before holding on for a 25-22 victory to go up 1-0. The second set also played out to be a difficult win after the Coyotes led 20-18 and then 22-21, but the Nighthawks outscored the Coyotes 7-2 down the stretch.

Down 2-0, Campo Verde showed why the program is surging at the moment by erasing a 9-4 deficit in the third set to take 12-9 lead. Alayna Kitch (30 assists) started to get in a groove with her two main targets in Gillian Bachali (15 kills) and Allison Pivonka (8 kills) asserting themselves at the net for the eventual 25-21 victory to cut the Nighthawk lead down to 2-1.

Allison Pivonka. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

The Coyotes used momentum from the third set to take control of the fourth set early on and things were all tied up 2-2 after the team took the set 25-18. Crawford also has a few targets she relies on and Kathryn Cherrington came up big in the deciding frame with four of her team-leading 19 kills recorded, keeping the Nighthawks in the match, including a score to tie the set up 12-12. Crawford collected an ace to give Ironwood Ridge a 13-12 lead but Bachali scored to make it 13-13. The Coyotes hit long to give the Nighthawks a 14-13 lead and then Elli Meinke came up with a block on the right side to secure the 15-13 match-point. Melanie Merrill added 12 kills for the Nighthawks.

“We talked a lot about the third and fourth set, about playing to win and not playing not to lose,” head coach Bill Lang said. “I felt like we were playing not to lose. I thought we were trying to keep the ball in and hope for the best.”

Lang loaded his schedule with a trip to California and another to Las Vegas to help prepare his program for the difficult 5A Conference and the Nighthawks will add to that difficulty by taking part in the Rise N’ Roar Classic hosted by Millennium in two weeks.

“Iron sharpens iron and we need to be better in practice,” Lang added. “So we're looking forward to the Millennium tournament.”

The Millennium tournament features most of the top ten teams in the 5A Conference and the Nighthawks gave up a spot in the Nike Tournament to take part. The Coyotes played in the Chandler House of Payne Tournament in early September and the program will have to find a way to get back on track after making an appearance in the quarterfinal round last year.