Xavier Prep isn't used to losing often in volleyball. A school that'shad Xavier's number of late -- Mountain Pointe - was on campus Thursday night. The Pride had the Gators attention, having beaten them once each of the last three years in invitationals. 

Xavier saw a 2-0 lead evaporate in tight sets 3 and 4, but persevered to win the decisive fifth in the 6A match. Scores were 25-16, 25-21, 23-25, 24-26 and 15-7 at Xavier's Activity Center.

"This was personal," Xavier coach Lamar Bryant said. "They've beaten us the last three years. We were emotional, but you have to play with calm emotion. We kind of lost it after the first couple sets."

Xavier improved to 3-0 while Mountain Pointe dropped its first match to slip to 4-1. The Pride played its third match in as many nights Thursday. This one was on the heels of a five-set win at home Wednesday over Queen Creek.

Mountain Pointe led by one point briefly in the first set and never led in the second making it difficult to beat the defending 6A champs. The Pride, a final-four participant last year, started better in the third and hung on to win and managed to rally from four points down in the fourth to force the fifth.

When the fifth commenced, Mountain Pointe was not at its best.

"We made too many errors," Mountain Pointe coach Karen Gray said. "It was our third match in three nights, but that's not an excuse. We've played pretty wel despite some injuries. We  have to clean up a few things here and there."

Xavier captialized  on Mountain Pointe miscues to take the final set going away. Four service errors and three aces posted by Xavier in the set pretty much spelled doom. Senior setter-opposite Avery Luoma registered two of her 13 kiils, sharing team-high honors in that stat with fellow senior outside Piper Manross. Manross had a kill and block in the set, but other than that those were the highlights of the set for the Pride. Sophomore Jahara Campbell also checked in tith double-digit kills with 12. Libero Bria Samilton had 25 digs and Manross added 17 digs. Luoma shared setting duties with freshman Kylie Wong. Luoma finished with 21 assists and Wong 11.

Xavier received aces in the finale from sophomore Serena Turner, junior Abi Converse and junior outside Briana McKnight. Jasmine Knight had two kills in the final set among her 13 for the match. McKnight (match-high 16 kills) and Turner had one each.

While pleased to notch the win, Bryant wasn't happy with several facets of her team's play.

"We missed 11 serves, hit .161 and our serve-receive and passing broke down a few times," Bryant said. "That's not who we are."

Defense on the attack was fine with libero Ashley Yeung (23 digs), senior setter Shannon Shields (13 digs) and McKnight (12 digs) playing steady all match.

Both teams are idle the rest of the week, but have power-ranking matches next week as well as competing in different invitationals Sept. 14-15.