By Brittany Bowyer
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SCOTTSDALE — In front of a rowdy crowd of students, Chaparral was able to snag a 3-1 volleyball victory over Horizon Monday night on the road. After Horizon took set one, Chaparral powered back to take the next three straight and leave the home crowd in the gym stunned.

“Just the grittiness of the group,” Chaparral Head Coach Evan Sedilla said. “They didn’t relent when they could have. They fought hard throughout the whole time. That really carried every aspect of our game, so that was great.”

In set one, Horizon got out to a quick lead early on that they were able to maintain. After pushing th lead to five, Chaparral called a timeout trailing 14-9. Towards the end of the set, junior Nia Tinsley really started coming to life, helping to extend the lead to 19-12 and force Chaparral to call another timeout. From there, the momentum was behind the Huskies, who were able to close it out when junior Gabi Gilbert found an open spot on the court and put the ball down to give Horizon set one 25-16.

“A lot of our returners do a lot for us, regularly,” Horizon Coach McKenna Skaggs said. “Tinsley is one of the best players we have, and so she really does a lot for her team and she really sacrifices a lot. She puts out her best effort ... Gabi Gilbert works her butt off to better the ball for her hitters and mix it up really nicely.”

Chaparral was able to quickly regroup in between sets and jump out to an early 5-1 lead over Horizon in set two behind a strong performance from junior Morgan Thorne, forcing the Huskies to call a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the Firebirds continued to dominate on the court. Senior Avery Crain was able to tap the ball over the net and find the floor to extend the lead to 12-2 and force Horizon to call another timeout.

“Thorne had an amazing match today,” Sedilla said.

The Huskies attempted to rally, forcing Chaparral to call a timeout as Horizon had cut the lead to 20-13. Following the timeout, Horizon scored three straight to make it 20-16 and force Chaparral to use its second timeout. The Firebirds were able to come together and focus on the task at hand to close out Horizon 25-19 and tie things up at 1-1.

Horizon got off to an early lead in set three, but Chaparral came right back to tie things up at six. Behind strong performances by seniors Olivia Kauffman and Sienna Galli, the Huskies found themselves leading 18-12. Chaparral called a timeout, knowing they had to dig deep to come back. Coming out of the timeout, they scored five straight points to cut the lead to 18-17, forcing Horizon to use a timeout.

After the timeout, Thorne and sophomore Sarah Hodgson took control, pushing the lead to 21-18.

“In the first set I had (Hodgson) as an outside hitter, and then the last three I had to have her set and hit in the front row,” Sedilla said.

Horizon used another timeout as the momentum had completely shifted inside the gymnasium. Horizon tried to overcome the energy swing, but it was too much for them to power through, falling to Chaparral in set three 25-20.

“They have a few more powerful hitters, and so I think defensively we got challenged a little bit,” Skaggs said. “Ultimately I think they were just able to make adjustments offensively that we weren’t so ready for.”

With their backs against the wall, Horizon knew they had to win the fourth set if they wanted even a chance with a fifth. It was close to start things off, with each team staying neck-and-neck as the set progressed. With Horizon up 19-18, Chaparral used its first timeout of the set. The Firebirds answered by coming back out to score on a kill from senior Brooke Falkenborg and an error by Horizon, making it 20-19 Chaparral. It remained close until the very end, when Chaparral was able to break away and win the final set 27-25.

“[Horizon’s] serves were harder than we were expecting,” Sedilla said. “Their out of system volleyball was high-level. It was hard to defend.”

“It’s all about reflection and growth,” Skaggs said. “We’re gonna take a look at what we did. I ultimately feel like we beat ourselves, for the most part. We had a lot of really strong leads, a lot of really high-intensity momentum, but ultimately I think we just beat ourselves, so it’s going to be conversations, watching film, seeing where we adjusted, where we shouldv’e adjusted quicker.”

For Chaparall, it was a big win for Sedilla’s young team.

“We’re gonna get the youngsters some more swings, and they’re gonna learn and get a little bit more consistency, but really we just need to buckle down the serve-receive,” Sedilla said. “Once we do that, we should be pretty strong.”

Chaparral now sits at 8-1 overall, while Horizon moves to 5-4. The AIA is set to release the initial rankings at noon Tues., Sept. 29.

“Moving forward, we’ve got a lot to accomplish this season and this one loss isn’t going to dictate that, so we’ve got to keep moving forward,” Skaggs said.

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.