Jesse Koning is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover North High School for AZPreps365.com.

 

On Monday, October 21, North High School Mustangs girls volleyball played thenSierra Linda High School Bulldogs in a five-set battle between both teams.

The Mustangs fell 2-0 sets and struggled early, but this did not deter them. Even though emotions ran high at moments, the seniors for the Mustangs helped keep their team mentally in the match when they struggled the most. 

"There was a mix of emotions everywhere. I was excited, angry and anxious, but I put it toward my game," senior middle blocker Natalie Figueroa said. “I was always trying to be positive, telling everyone we got this, picking up everybody’s heads up, just putting everybody together so that we played together." 

The Mustangs won the following sets: 25-18 and 27-25. The fifth-set tiebreaker was back and forth, and no team found an advantage. The Bulldogs went on a 3-0 run to go up 7-4, but the Mustangs fought back like they had all game and tied the set. 

With a chance to take the lead, the Bulldogs were able to get a side out, a term used when the non-serving team gets the point, and take the lead 8-7. 

The Mustangs responded with a side out of their own and maintained their serve to go up 10-8. 

Then, the Bulldogs took a timeout. 

Coming out of the timeout, the Mustangs' serve went long and the Bulldogs tied the game again after getting a quick point. The set went back and forth, with both teams trading points, until the set was tied at 12. The Mustangs got the side out and put their serve away to force a match point, 14-12.

This forced another Bulldog timeout because the Mustangs were one point away from winning the match.

After the timeout, the Mustangs served and got an emphatic ace. The Mustangs sideline erupted with cheers as players poured onto the court. The message throughout this match for the Mustangs was to stay loose and not quit, and this is how the Mustangs were able to clutch out the victory.

“We are not quitting,” Coach Mindy Williams said. "We stay loose. Play with pride, right? This is our home court, so I think that had a lot to do with it. Just relax because sometimes we’re down, we get tense, and we make mistakes.”

With this win, the Mustangs improved to 10-4. Although this was not a regional match, the Mustangs are 9-0 in regional matches. The Mustangs have four matches left in its season.

“Right now, we’re on our goal to win our region and be undefeated in region play,” she said. “We have a couple team matches coming up, and in order to make the playoffs or the play-in game, we need to win out the rest of our matches. With the leadership of the girls that I have on the team and the senior leadership, we can do that.”