No. 10 Ironwood Ridge was taken to the limit at No. 19 Mountain View Marana Thursday night but the Nighthawks prevailed in five sets (25-17, 22-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-10) to improve to 11-3 in power-ranking matches. The Mountain Lions are now 8-5.

A victory by the Mountain Lions might have been enough to move the team closer to a solid playoff berth but there’s still time with No. 7 Catalina Foothills (11-2) and Ironwood Ridge remaining on the regular season schedule. Ironwood Ridge still has two matches with the Falcons remaining and a lot more than a 5A Southern Region title is on the line.

The 2A-6A Conference Play-in Tournament is set for Tuesday, November 1 and that round will consist of teams ranked No. 9 to No. 24. The Nighthawks are hoping to move into the top eight to avoid the extra round of play and it will also mean a home match in the first round of the state playoffs starting on Nov. 3.

Ironwood Ridge took the first set over Mountain View 25-17 but things got more difficult in the second set thanks to a stretch of play where the Nighthawks were unable to gain separation with three straight service errors keeping things even at 14-14 despite three massive kills from Taylor Crawford to Melanie Merrill. The Nighthawks went up 21-20 but a kill from Julia Weatherbie to Maggie McReynolds, combined with two blocks from Isabella Hernandez, paced the Mountain Lions to a 25-22 win to tie the match up at 1-1.

Mountain View built a 15-9 lead in the third set but the hitting of Merrill and Kathryn Cherrington proved too much and the Nighthawks battled back for an 18-17 lead. Ironwood Ridge went up 22-20 but a service error and a block from Carlie Crook tied things up only to have two service errors go in favor of the Nighthawks down the stretch and Ironwood Ridge won 25-23 to go up 2-1.

The fourth set went back and forth to an eventual 22-22 tie but another block from Crook shifted the final momentum to Mountain View and a kill from Lexi Woodyard ended it 25-23 to tie the match up again at 2-2. The Nighthawks flew out to a 10-2 lead in the deciding set and kills from Cherrington and Merrill ended the match with a 15-10 victory.

Ironwood Ridge is heading to Millennium to take part in the Rise N’ Roar Classic on Friday and Saturday and Mountain View is hosting the Lion’s Den Tournament on the same days.

(Maggie McReynolds/Lexie Fegan Photos)