Adam Winnard is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Seton Catholic Preparatory for AZPreps365.

Seton Catholic pulled off an impressive second set win over Higley Friday morning at the Battle of the Realm high school volleyball tournament to call the match a draw after two sets of play.

The Sentinels, who are ranked fourth in 4A Desert Sky, took on the Knights of Higley, who are ranked third in 5A San Tan, to open the tournament, which was hosted by Arizona College Prep High School and is predominantly comprised of 5A and 6A schools.

However, this did not seem to bother head coach James Johnson and his squad.

“We kind of have a motto. We just keep it simple,” Johnson said. “We play whoever is on the court, it doesn’t matter what school they are or what their ranking is, we prepare to work hard.”

Seton Catholic got off to a bit of a rocky start at the beginning of the first set. It did not let this get the best of them, though. The Sentinels libero, Veronica Bratko, did not let the ball hit the ground, her cat-like reflexes kept her team in the game. However, it was not enough, as the Sentinels went on to lose the first set to the Knights 25-16.

The Sentinels came out soaring in the second set, with an early 4-0 lead. Seton Catholic made a few offensive mistakes which led to the first timeout, called by the Sentinels in the second set.

The timeout was all it took for star freshman Rylan Keane to get dialed in. Keane came out firing on all cylinders. With help from her teammates, she appeared to effortlessly get the ball over the net, and dove for loose balls outside, too. Along with Keane, sophomore Elizabeth Steinkamp was an offensive force, not giving Higley a chance on returning the ball.

Seton Catholic maintained a lead most of the second set, but Higley did not take the foot off the gas.

”I thought that we kind of gave up and our energy wasn’t there and we kept on letting them take leads,” Steinkamp said of the middle portion of the second set. “And luckily we were able to take them back.”

With the teams playing through the fatigue towards the end of the set, it came down to the wire with a 24-24 score. The Sentinels kicked into another gear and put down two unanswered points to secure the second set win with a score of 26-24.

Freshman rightside hitter Sydney Stumpf noted the changes that were made in the second set in order to walk out with a set victory.

“I definitely think that we were engaged and we pressed and focused on the little things and our energy kicked in at the end and it was good,” Stumpf said.