Salpointe remains perfect on the year after the Lancers beat Mica Mountain 3-2 on the road Tuesday night. The Lancers have 15 victories on the season and the team had only given up two sets in that stretch but Mica Mountain (13-5) came within a few points of taking three in one match, showing a bit on how difficult the 4A Kino Region will be this fall.

The Thunderbolts took second place in the 4A Conference last year under Amy Johnson and the program went 4-1 at the vaunted Epic Tourneys Girls Volleyball Invite last week. The team is scheduled to take part in the Nike Tournament of Champions this week after playing a match at Sahuaro tomorrow night. Clearly, Mica Mountain is ready for another championship run, especially with a 7-1 record in power-ranking matches.

“We played some really good teams in Phoenix,” Johnson said. “I think we got better. We got a lot of people in, so we were able to get some experience so that was really good for us but then we come out and play like this. We didn't execute, didn't serve well and had no energy. We just kind of went through the motions at times.”

The Lancers made it to the semifinal round last year under Keith Rubio in his first year with the program and the team came away with a championship at the Lancer Invitational last week. Salpointe will also take part in the Nike Tournament of Champions.

Ironwood Ridge is 5-1 in ranking matches including a 3-2 victory over the defending 4A state championship team in Estrella Foothills. Salpointe will play at Ironwood Ridge on Sept. 30 and Mica Mountain will host the Nighthawks on Oct. 9. Being in the same region, the teams will play against each other twice.

The match between Salpointe and Mica Mountain was uneven and rocky at times for both squads with Salpointe pulling out a 27-25 win in the first set, the Thunderbolts taking the second set 25-13, the Lancers winning the third set 25-14, Mica Mountain recovering to tie the match up 2-2 with a 25-23 win the fourth set and then Salpointe going on a 5-1 run to win the third set 15-11.

“Obviously, this is a big win, exciting win,” Rubio said. “I saw a lot of resilience, a lot of kids who came in, and it's been kind of a carousel with my setters. Started off a little bit rough and then came in and did a great job.”

The first set played close with the scored tied at 21-21 late but senior Mia Bartfalvi came up with a block and back-to-back aces to put Salpointe up 24-21. Aubrey Necas sparked a 3-0 run with kills to tie the set back up at 24-24 and then up 25-24 but a service error opened the door for the Lancers and senior Caitlin Hurley hit senior Ivy Allen for the 27-25 clincher.

As mentioned before, the Thunderbolts owned the second set 25-13 and the Lancers returned the favor with a 25-14 win the third set to go back up 2-1. In the fourth set, it looked like there would be another runaway with Mica Mountain taking a 10-5 lead but the Lancers went on a 6-0 run, highlighted by a couple of aces from senior Adrianna Kynaston. The teams went back and forth from there until Necas came up with a kill to put the Thunderbolts up 20-19. Allen cut the lead down to 21-20 a couple of points later but Necas put Mica Mountain up 23-20 with a block. Kate Mobley scored to cut the lead down to 23-21 but Necas had another block to make it 24-21. Mobley came up big again to spoil another set point but senior Hannah Schade took an offering from sophomore Mia Parker to close out the rocky set 25-23.

Schade tied the third set up 10-10 but the Lancers spread the points around with Allen, senior Natalia Solomon, Mobley scoring down the stretch to set up senior Natalie Mobley for the winning block at 15-11.

“We were up and down,” Johnson added. Sometimes, we play really, really good but sometimes they think they're going to win but they just need to learn how to battle and we're not real good at that yet but it’s a long season.”

It is a long season and Rubio also sees room for improvement.

“We have to learn how to manage our game and not give away too many points,” Rubio added.

The initial set of volleyball rankings will be released on Sept. 30 and the top eight teams at the end of the regular season will earn an automatic berth to state while teams ranked 9-24 will take part in the Play-In Tournament set for Nov. 4.