Daniel Ochoa is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Xavier College Preparatory for AZPreps365.com.

In the first match after the Westwood Tournament of Champions, Xavier College Prep. showed no restraint in a three-set sweep over Boulder Creek on Wednesday night.

The Gators opened up the gates right from the get-go, scoring eight of the first nine points and maintaining the lead through the first set. Senior Emma Soderstrom, who was selected to the All-Tournament Team last weekend, paved the way to the 25-14 first-set victory by tallying four kills.

In her third year of varsity volleyball, Soderstrom acts as a team leader, rallying and uplifting her teammates match after match.

“I try to be a person on the court the girls can look up to,” Soderstrom said. “To have that honor is nice … just having a person underclassmen can look up to."

Going into the second set, the Gators appeared to start off slow with their only deficit coming in the second set, when Boulder Creek took a 9-8 lead. From that point on, the Gators never trailed and went on a 9-0 run to help boost the team to a 25-17 second set victory.

Once the Gators regained the lead in the second set, there was a small 3-0 run by Boulder Creek that rattled Xavier head coach Lamar-Renee Bryant as she called a quick timeout to discuss with the team.

“It’s just about settling down,” Bryant said. “Every defense gives away something, so we need to figure out what they’re giving away and attack that zone. And we were able to do that and get out of that situation and push forward.”

The timeout pep talk helped the slight slump the Gators seemed to face, as they finished off the second set on an 8-2 rally and carried that confidence into a quick third and final set.

The Gators snapped through Boulder Creek in a 25-7 third set that was dominated by serves and the help of senior Tiffany Tellez.

“Consistently hitting our serving targets and making them get into their third or fourth option,” Byant said. “That was easy for us to turn those points.”

Tellez appeared to be playing Boulder Creek herself, as every ball hit back towards the Gators was pounded back over the net for a point. She gave the team momentum and the energy needed to finish off a dominating final set.

“[The team] wanted to bring as much as energy as we can to just have as much fun as we could,”  Tellez said.

Xavier is now 10-2 on the season (3-1 in league games, 7-1 in tournament games) and is hoping to use their quick game to be rested for their away game on Thursday against Desert Vista (7-5).