Thomas Forbes is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain View High School for AZPreps365.com

The Mountain View Toros were overpowered by Xavier College Prep in three sets, 12-25, 15-25, 16-25, despite impressive aces and blocks on Wednesday night at Brophy College Prep’s gymnasium.

Head coach Tim Church spoke about the talent of his defense but expressed disappointment on some plays that needed to be made. “We have very skilled defenders,” Church said. “But we really didn’t make the plays I know we’re capable of.”

Even though Mountain View did not execute enough digs to keep each set closer, it made up for that by executing an impressive number of blocks to briefly shut down the momentum of Xavier College Prep. There were impressive blocks by junior Aubrey Parris matched with junior Jordyn Decker and sophomore Emma Fischbeck paired with junior Aubrey Bellus.

Xavier College Prep started off strong against Mountain View despite a couple of great acrobatic digs from sophomore Alayna Austin, winning the first set 25-12.

Senior Alyssa Austin, the older sister of Alayna Austin, had two aces during the match. Decker and Alayna Austin were the other Toros who also had aces during the match.

The second set started off strong for Mountain View with kills from Alayna Austin and Julia Freeman and an ace from Decker. Sophomore Analei Bradley showed off her defensive athletic abilities with a couple of great saves to keep the set close at 7-12. Another ace by Alyssa Austin helped keep the scoring close, but Xavier College Prep’s offense was too much for Mountain View to handle as it took the second set 15-25.

Mountain View looked to bounce back during the third set after losing the first point to an ace. Alyssa Austin helped tie the third set 7-7 after an unstoppable kill to put the pressure on Xavier College Prep.

A block by Decker and Bellus helped put Mountain View in the lead briefly with a powerful kill by Decker again, but the offense of Xavier College Prep once again took charge against Mountain View’s defense, outscoring the Toros 16-25 to complete the three-set sweep.

Despite the surge of offense from the Toros, the defense could not keep up with the strong performance of Xavier College Prep. Xavier totaled 33 kills during the match.

Mountain View finished the week 0-5 overall and 0-5 in the conference against the still undefeated Xavier College Prep (5-0, 5-0).

Mountain View has a few days to regroup before a busy week ahead against Corona del Sol (4-1, 4-1) at home, Dobson (3-3, 3-3) on the road and finishing off next week’s matches against Mesa (4-1, 4-1) at Mesa High School.

The Mountain View Toros plan to regroup from the match against Xavier College Prep on Wednesday night to prepare for the physically demanding upcoming week.

“Corona is good,” Church said. “So we know what they’re capable of. We just have to find our offense, and I know our defense will dig more balls when we have a better offense.”