Crawford McKinstry is a student journalist at Arizona State University assigned to cover Arcadia High School for AZPreps365.com

The Saguaro Sabercats won at Arcadia in four sets (15-25, 25-16, 21-25, 22-25) on Tuesday.

Both teams are the top two in the 4A conference's Desert Sky region standings. As of Wednesday, Arcadia (9-4) is ranked eighth in the 4A state rankings and Saguaro (8-3) is 10th. 

Entering the match, Arcadia sat at fourth in 4A rankings. Not far behind them were the Sabercats who held the 10th spot. 

Despite a rough start and only one set in Arcadia’s favor, the Titans put up a strong fight against one of their rivals. 

“We kept our energy pretty even throughout the whole game which is normally a struggle for us,” said junior outside hitter Lane Sheedy. 

The Titans' front line of Sheedy, Taylor Soule, senior middle blocker Zoe Leonard and junior middle blocker Katie Musselmann momentarily locked down the Sabercats' attack, as they went on a double digit run to close out the second set.

"As a team, we saw certain challenges we had to face and we had to overcome them,” Soule said.

However, the rest of the match proved to be an uphill battle for the Titans. Arcadia opened the third and fourth sets in the lead, but eventually fell short. 

The toughest obstacle for the Titans was Saguaro senior libero Mahealani Ikei. She played phenomenal defense getting most of her team's digs.

“We served the libero a little too often,” said senior outside hitter Avery Nadolski. “We need to keep the balls away from her.” 

Ikei wasn’t the only one causing trouble for the Titans. Junior outside hitter Lexi Mallonee-King and senior opposite hitter Braelyn Marshall repeatedly stepped up in clutch situations. 

Mallonee-King tallied multiple much needed blocks, and Marshall came up with a crucial kill near the end of the fourth set to help win the match for Saguaro.

The Titans needed better defense down the stretch, Sheedy said. Halfway through both of the last two sets, the Sabercats went on runs that ultimately prevented Arcadia from completing near comebacks.

After a four-point Saguaro run in the fourth set, Arcadia called timeout, then the Titans almost pushed for a fifth. As the pressure increased, Arcadia remained calm and tied the game 21-21. 

There were a few errors late and some big plays by Saguaro, which proved to be too much to overcome.

After the tough loss, Arcadia players stressed their areas of improvement.

“Stay lower and kind of read balls so we don’t have to guess,” said Soule. 

The Titans needed “better serve receive, because they picked targets and really hit those targets,” Sheedy said.

Arcadia will seek vengeance against Saguaro when they face off again on Monday, Oct. 24.

“We want to beat them more than ever,” said Soule.