Erik List is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Paradise Valley High School for AZPreps365.com

Teams are bound to have rough nights.

There is a winner and a loser.

The Paradise Valley Trojans girls’ volleyball team suffered a tough 3-0 road loss Wednesday night against Sunrise Mountain Mustangs in regional play.

“That’s probably the worst we’ve ever played as a team,” Trojans head coach Jessica Spencer said solemnly. “We can do a lot better than that.”

The frontcourt of the Mustangs (8-2 overall, 6-0 region) was the biggest challenge for the Trojans (6-10 overall, 0-4 region) all night. Junior Emily Pruitt led the Mustangs with four kills during the match, plus two more points that would be counted after going off a player from Paradise Valley.

The blocking crew of Pruitt, fellow juniors Hannah Allman and Bailee Baca and sophomore Carly Soboloski were dominant all night up front for Sunrise Mountain.

“They run a fast offense, and we just need to be prepared for that next time,” Spencer said. “They run a quick pass, quick set, quick hit, and we’re not prepared for that on the net, and we need to close our blocks and be more prepared for that.”

The start of the first set looked optimistic for the Trojans as they scored first, but that lead would be short-lived. The Mustangs got on the board after a dig by Paradise Valley senior Audrey Kennedy couldn't be returned by her teammates and went out of play.

The first set went back and forth, and neither team gained the upper hand until the Mustangs pulled away with a six-point scoring run, driving the score up to 17-8.

The Trojans gained a couple of points back, but ended up falling, 25-10, in the first set off a kill from Mustangs sophomore Shelby Schoenbeck.

The second set followed a similar pattern as the Trojans struck first, but then a kill by Pruitt got the Mustangs quickly back in the game leading to a small 4-0 scoring run that was later followed up by a 6-0 surge, making it a 10-2 before the Trojans called a timeout.

After the timeout, the Mustangs continued to build a lead, using a 9-0 run with Mustang senior Sienna Ruiz serving to make the score, 23-6.

A big dig from Bosie helped the Trojans get a point back, but they dropped the second set, 25-8.

The Mustangs opened the third set on a 12-point scoring run and it was on from there.

The Trojans collected only eight points during the final set in a 25-8 defeat. Senior Abby Peterson had a kill and block with junior teammate Rhiannon Boesl, but that wasn't enough.

“We weren’t learning from our mistakes,” Trojans senior Sofia Curran. “If someone made a mistake, we weren’t adjusting from it, and we weren’t bringing each other up. We were letting each other stay down, which did not affect the game positively.”

From the start of the night, the Trojans didn’t quite have it.

“I feel like we didn’t come in with the right mindset at all,” Boesl said. “We were defeated from the start like we walked in defeated.”