In a one-sided match that saw its fair share of point streaks, the 5A Mesquite Wildcats defeated the 4A St. Mary’s Knights 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-8) Wednesday night in Gilbert.

There were six separate runs where either team scored five or more consecutive points throughout the three-set match. It was Mesquite that got off to a hot start though, led by freshman Jenna Heller (16 assists, six kills, seven digs) and junior Jen Jacot (six service aces).

However, St. Mary’s made it interesting at the end of the first set going into the second. The Wildcats built a 24-16 lead in the opening set with a combination of hard kills on their part and errors by the Knights. 

With their backs against the wall, St. Mary’s flipped the script. They took advantage of the Wildcats’ complacency and went on a 5-0 run to cut the first-set deficit to 24-21. Mesquite finished the job though, winning it by four.

"It was nerves at the beginning,” Knights head coach September Lopez said. “I asked them ‘What are they doing that you guys are intimidated about?’ and they said ‘nothing’ and then they tried to make a run for it but it was too late in the game.”

“It was more of a matter of pushing (the team) to focus and place the ball rather than just take a swing at it,” Mesquite junior and team captain Layni Rodriguez said. “It’s about being mental and smart.”

St. Mary’s kept its momentum going into the second set, taking an early 4-1 lead and staying in front until Mesquite tied it 7-7. The Wildcats took over after that though, going on a 15-2 run that put the second set out of reach. 

“Our offense is based on speed and deception,” Mesquite head coach Carlos Flys said. “We’re very small, so we have to run fast, so everything we do is as fast as we can do otherwise we’re going to get blocked.”

The Knights went on a 7-3 run after going down by 12 in Set 2, but it was too little too late as Mesquite won it by nine.

 
The third set was the swiftest of them all, as the Wildcats dominated a fatigued St. Mary’s team 25-8. Rodriguez led Mesquite’s defensive effort, recording 16 of the squad’s 38 total digs. Seniors Lauren Lipinski and Haley Fitzgerald continued to lead the Wildcats’ frontline attack, tallying 10 and six kills, respectively, for the match. 

St. Mary’s falls to 1-2 on the season with the loss and returns to action Tuesday, Sept. 12, when they host Tempe. 
Mesquite improves to 4-1 with the win and will visit Chaparral on Thursday for its next game. 

“Chaparral’s a very tough team,” Flys said. “So you always have this little bit of a trap where you play kind of a slower game at this pace and so I kept telling them they needed to maintain their focus and try to push the pace because otherwise they’re going to be used to slow and tomorrow we need to go fast and risky.”