Zina Garcia is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Paradise Valley High School for AZPreps365.com

The Paradise Valley Trojans faced a tough 3-0 loss against Desert Edge in the last away game of their season. Yet the Trojans’ defense was able to stand tall despite the outcome of the match and laid the foundation for their striking attack.

The Trojans started off slow losing the first set 25-17 with nine of their points being kills. Head Coach Jessica Spencer said that her team had been consistently working on their serve-receiving and digging skills to make up for their lack of offensive power.

“It’s always been one of our big things because we’re not a huge offensive team, we have to be great at defense. It is something they have all been working on,” Spencer said.

The defensive backbone for Paradise Valley is junior libero Ana Kirk who put up an estimated 10 digs in the last two sets alone. Kirk’s hustle on defense allowed the Trojans the opportunity to attack more efficiently than their first set.

Paradise Valley had a hard fought rally in the second set that tied it at 11-11, and although Kirk put up 7 digs within the set, Desert Edge was able to pull away with the set win 25-19.

The defensive effort by Kirk granted the chance for the attack to take charge and put points on the board for the Trojans. Three players on the offensive front were able to put up five or more kills within the match.

Amongst those is senior outside hitter Rylee Mogalian who had an estimated 7 kills in the match. Mogalian said that much of her team's effort originates from the fact that this is Paradise Valley’s third game in three days.

“We are coming off two really rough games and with this being our third straight game this week I think we really came together as a team,” Mogalian said. “To be honest we have a rollercoaster kind of time with emotions throughout games, and so I think tonight we were on a high.”

The Trojans’ flooding emotions bled into the third set and provided them momentum to go on a 4-0 run with freshman setter Lauren Christopher’s three aces. Paradise Valley led the set 15-13 and forced a Desert Edge timeout.

The Scorpions rallied together and took the last set 25-20 leaving the Paradise Valley Trojans in the desert dust. Yet, despite the loss Eboni Thomas, a senior outside hitter, was vocal about her determined mindset throughout the game.

“My mentality is that I'm going to destroy every single person in my path, whether it’s as a team or individually,” Thomas said.

Thomas would end the game with an unofficial 5 kills which kept the sets close until the end. Although the outcome of the Trojans’ last road game of the season was not what they hoped, Thomas said she took away positives from the resilient and gritty game of volleyball.

“I understand that volleyball is a team sport, but I also have my individual wins that I take,” Thomas said. “All of my hits that I got as kills, those are going in a highlight because those are my personal wins.”