In a back and forth battle, the Notre Dame Saints defeated the Chaparral Firebirds Monday night 25-23, 22-25, 23-25, 25-12, 15-7 in a big section game matchup.

The victory, the eighth win in a row over an Arizona team, helped Notre Dame clinch the Northeast Valley Section title. Before the loss, the Firebirds had dropped only two matches since Sept. 22.

Notre Dame (25-13 overall, 6-1 section) and Chaparral (31-9 overall, 6-2 section) wrapped up their regular seasons Tuesday with section victories. Before Monday's match, Chaparral won its five games against Notre Dame this season.   

But coach Sarah Fox and her Saints have bounced back after a "rough" start to their season.

“Two big things I think were different were we didn’t make as many errors hitting-wise and we played really good defense," Fox said. 

Notre Dame held Chaparral to one of its lowest set scores this season, with 17 in the fourth.

Notre Dame's defense was spearheaded by the wall middle blocker Haley Kenner put up, blocking seven shots. Notre Dame's high-powered offense also disrupted the play of the Firebirds, who accumulated more than a dozen hitting errors.

Alexandria Johnson and Sophia Sydenham each had 22 kills for Notre Dame, one of the state's defending state champs. 

“We just got in our heads in the second set, but we really pulled it together and played as a team,” Johnson said.

Chaparral appeared to have stolen the momentum after its Game 2 victory, but the Saints kept themselves in the match by trading points at the start of the third set. However, the early game effort was not enough, as they went down 2-1.

With revived confidence, Notre Dame scored five straight to start the fourth set and went on to stretch the lead by eight points before winning the fourth set 25-17. Sydenham said her team's effort was a bright example of her team’s resilience.