Adam Winnard is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Seton Catholic Preparatory for AZPreps365.

Seton Catholic faced up to a tough Mountain Ridge team and fell short 28-26, 25-13 to the 6A squad after a first set that was forced to overtime.

On Friday morning, the Sentinels came off of a draw against the Higley Knights and jumped right back out to warmups to face off against the Mountain Ridge Lions, which is ranked fourth in the 6A Desert Valley.

Mountain Ridge had just come off a draw to Catalina Foothills in a match that was forced to overtime in both sets. With both teams looking for redemption, this game started off with fire. In the beginning of the match, the Lions came out hungrier and started to pull away. It was only a matter of time until the Sentinels shook it off and started to find their groove.

The Sentinels’ middle hitter, Phia Fisher, was standing tall with her net-front presence the whole game. Fisher went on to get numerous blocks and kills for the Sentinels, keeping them in the match and standing out when they needed her most.

Another standout player for the Sentinels was libero Emily Yehle. Yehle’s spatial awareness was a massive weapon in their artillery. She came out with plenty of digs that looked out of reach and was putting the ball in a playable area.

With the first timeout in the first set, Seton Catholic was on top 10-9. This timeout gave even more momentum to the Sentinels, as they did not slow down on their point gaining. They started to take off and by the time the next timeout was called, they were up 20-14.

That second timeout flipped a switch for the Lions. Being down by six before the timeout, they regathered and planted their feet. The Lions started to show a more aggressive pace and were inching their way up back with the Sentinels.

After 25 was scored on each side, they continued to play extra points to get a clear set winner. After a little bit of back and forth, the Sentinels fell short in a dramatic fashion with an overtime thriller.

“Our defense was trying to go for everything, that was good,” said Seton Catholic sophomore Elizabeth Steinkamp. “When we were at the net, we let a couple things get tooled. It was the little things we didn’t do.”

Freshman Sydney Stumpf also had some key takeaways.

“We just can’t let them get on a run in the beginning,” Stumpf said. “And we needed to have the same energy from the first set.”

Head coach James Johnson said it was important to move forward and to fight the next battle to come.

“We understand this game is about mistakes and we make them,” Johnson said. “Next game, we’re going to work on keeping the ball off the net for the setters and let the setters put the ball in a good place.”

The Sentinels have an opportunity to redeem themselves at 12 p.m. against Catalina Foothills later this afternoon.