CAVE CREEK — It was a rollercoaster ride of a volleyball match between the no. 8 Arcadia Titans and no. 22 Cactus Shadows Falcons on Thursday night. Coming down to the fifth and final set, the Titans were able to dig deep to find what they needed to close out the set and take things 3-2 over Cactus Shadows on the road.
Arcadia got out to an early lead in set one , but Cactus Shadows would work its way back to tie things at 7. A net serve from the Falcons would put Arcadia back on top 8-7, and from there, they’d continue building on their lead. The Titans were able to score three straight on a kill from senior Tessa Peters, a violation by Cactus Shadows and an ace from junior Lauren Hackett, forcing the Falcons to call a timeout trailing 18-14.
Coming out of the timeout, sophomore Violett D’annibale had a huge kill to keep the momentum going. From there, Arcadia kept working to a 25-17 victory in set one to take a 1-0 lead over Arcadia.
Starting out set two, the Titans were red hot. After junior Daniela Mendez put the ball down to give Arcadia the 1-0 lead in set two, Senior Riley Rooney followed it up with three consecutive kills for the Titans. After Arcadia jumped out to a quick 9-1 lead in set two, Cactus Shadows called a timeout to try to regroup. Coming out of the timeout, the Falcons slowly started climbing out of the hole they found themselves in.
However, it was already too late for the Falcons, as the Titans were in their groove in set two. Cactus Shadows was able to get within three, cutting Arcadia’s lead to 17-14, but the Titans would go on an 8-1 run to close out the set. Taking set two 25-14, the Titans were now up 2-0 over Cactus Shadows and just needed to close out set three, but that would prove to be a problem.
“We were running a five-one in the first two sets, and our defense is not that good on that,” Coach Josh Daniels said. “So they were exploiting a lot of holes in our defense and our block. They have a really great middle, and their middle kept swinging through like no other on our block. So that’s really what kind of hurt us on the first two sets was the block.”
Cactus Shadows made some defensive adjustments, and they came out looking like a whole new team.
Set three got off to a back and forth battle for the lead. It was back and forth early on as they each fought to establish dominance in the set, but Cactus Shadows wasn’t backing down. Eventually, the Falcons were able to work their way out to a 15-12 lead off errors by Arcadia. Back to back blocks by senior Samantha Ryan would extend the lead to 17-12, giving Cactus Shadows its biggest lead in any set so far.
The momentum was behind the Falcons, who were able to work their way out to a 20-13 lead, forcing Arcadia to call a timeout.
Arcadia came back out and attempted to rally, but the deficit was too much for them to overcome in this set. The Falcons were able to cap off the set with a kill from senior Audryana Caberera to win it 25-20 and cut Arcadia’s lead to 2-1.
“We got complacent and thought that they were just going to give up in the third set,” Coach Rylee Brown said.
With some life still left in them, the Falcons started set four by establishing dominance. Each time Arcadia would tie it early, Cactus Shadows would inch right back out in front. An Ace from Cabrera and a kill from junior Makayla Bollwitt would put the Falcons up 10-6 in set four. From there, Cactus Shadows was able to maintain the lead for most of the set, forcing Arcadia to call a timeout later in the set trailing 20-16.
Arcadia attempted to dig deep and make a comeback, but it would be too little, too late. The Falcons closed out the set off back-to-back kills from senior Tia Goaziou and Ryan, taking it 25-20 and tying things at 2-2.
“I’m overjoyed because they played really well to come back two sets in a row and dominate those two sets,” Coach Daniels said. “I think they’re resilient. I think they’re an amazing group of girls. Each one of these girls has a great amount of talent.”
“I think they kept the ball in and put it in good spots,” Coach Brown said. “But I think more so, we stopped doing what was working.”
At this point, Arcadia was feeling the pressure and knew they needed to turn it on and get the job done. Coach Brown’s message to her team in between the fourth and fifth sets were that they needed to stop playing for themselves.
“They need to play for the team,” Brown said. “Everything is done for the team, whether it’s getting a kill, getting an ace, going for the ball, it’s for the team. It’s not for themselves.”
The Titans got off to an explosive start in set one, jumping out to an early 6-1 lead and forcing Cactus Shadows to call a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Hackett had a huge kill for Arcadia to keep the momentum going in their direction.
Cactus Shadows attempted to rally, but it they had fallen too far behind. Arcadia was able to easily cruise to a 15-10 victory over the Falcons and take the game 3-2.
For Cactus Shadows Head Coach, the loss was frustrating as the Falcons have struggled to close things out in set five in their last two games.
“We just can’t pull off a fifth set,” Coach Daniels said. “We’ve been struggling on closing sets, but especially on the fifth set, so that’s where the frustration goes.”
The end of the season is nearly here with playoffs right around the corner, and each team is looking to close out the season strong.
Cactus Shadows has three more matches against Bradshaw Mountain, St. Mary’s and Cactus, while Arcadia has two more games against Cactus and Deer Valley.
“We’ve dropped a lot of easy games this year,” Coach Daniels said. “Our season’s been a little rough this year, but at the end of the day, I think if we were to go to play-ins or playoffs, I don’t think a team would want to see us in that first round.”
Daniels believes if his team is able to lock-in for the remainder of the season, they have the opportunity to pull off what he called a, “miracle.”
Meanwhile for Arcadia, the Titans will look to maintain their spot in the top eight so they can avoid the play-in round.
Brittany Bowyer is a Report for America corps member, covering sports for Independent Newsmedia in Arizona. Report for America places talented journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and regions.
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