It was a battle from start to finish as the top two 6A volleyball teams, Xavier Prep and Perry, went head-to-head for five sets Wednesday night. Ultimately, Perry took down the undefeated Gators winning three out of the five sets for a conference victory.

Perry had a slow start, losing their first set 25-14. But they came back in the second and third set winning 25-14 and 26-24 respectively, came up short 25-19 in the fourth set. The match came down to a fifth and final, and the Pumas secured the win 15-9.

Each match had many intense volleys back and forth showing each team’s skill and techniques.

“We came out and we lost the first game,” said Perry head coach Fred Mann. “But I’m proud of them for maintaining their composure, staying tough, and battling all the way. Xavier Prep is a good team, but we’ve been practicing well, so I expected us to play well.”

Leading Perry’s rally was middle blocker Grace Doyle. Doyle had five blocks in the last match that secured the win for the Pumas. Doyle said that while the Pumas could have shut down after the first match, they held it together and that’s how they pulled off a big win.

“There were a few nerves after the first set, but we made sure to keep our cool and made sure to play through everything in the moment,” said Doyle. “We made sure to have fun and not play tense.”

Xavier Prep started their night off strong led by multiple kills from outside hitter Brianna McKnight. The Gators played tough the entire night, rallying multiple times to keep the games close. Throughout the match, Xavier Prep had multiple balls going out of bounds, which hurt against a quality team. In the end, the final set gradually got away from the Gators as they could not come back from the seven-point deficit.

“We didn’t show up tonight like we normally do,” said head coach Lamar-Renee Bryant. “We played a great team, but you can’t get down seven points as we did. Time and time again, we spent so much time battling back that in the end, it made it really difficult to score.”

The Perry Pumas are back home Thursday night to host the Hamilton Huskies for a conference match at 6 p.m. while the Xavier Prep Gators will head out to face the Basha Bears for their own conference match.