Mesquite's and Arcadia's volleyball ball teams were playing Monday night for a Division II section title and to take the guesswork out of whether or not they'd qualify for postseason next week.

With a raucous crowd on hand for both sides, Mesquite rallied to win the final two sets and nab a 25-20, 17-25, 21-25, 25-16, 15-12 triumph over Arcadia at Arcadia High.

Mesquite ran its record to 28-12 overall and 14-2 in power-ranking matches. Most importantly, the Wildcats earned the automatic playoff bid at state for winning the section crown. Mesquite is 9-0 in section play with one match left. The worst it can do is tie Arcadia for first and Monday's victory gave it the tie-breaker just in case. Mesquite was No. 15 in Monday's D-II power-rankings. It will be Mesquite's first visit to postseason since 2008.

Arcadia needed the section-title berth worse than Mesquite. Arcadia is 21-15 overall, 9-6 in power ranking matches and 8-1 in section play. The Titans were 19th in the power rankiings prior to the match.

"This was an awesome match," Mesquite coch Carlos Flys said. "Our program has been down so long. The girls got a first glimpse last year with their improvement. This year they wanted more."

Flys warned his team before the match to be ready for a lengthy one. After knotting the match at 2 sets each going away, Mesquite fell behind 5-0 in the fifth. Arcadia used two Mesquite errors and two aces from Katie Murphy to grab the quick getaway. Mesquite got on the board with one of sophomore hitter Jordan Schumacher's match-high 23 kills. Mesquite's offense began to thrive from there on, thanks, according to Arcadia coach Josh Olshan, because of Mesquite's defense.

"The key was the way their libero was digging against us in the fourth and fifth sets," Olshan said. "I thought it was our offense against their defense and the defense won. We've been successful because other team haven't been able to handle to dig against us."

Mesquite whittled away at a 6-1 deficit and actually took a 12-10 lead with Schumacher, Kiley Tonge and Brianna Hawkins doing the the damage on the attack. Schumacher had 4 kills in the final set, Tonge four and Hawkins two. The final tie was at 12 after kills by Arcadia's Kristen Roberts and Christina Conrado, but Mesquite prevailed with a Schumacher kill and two Arcadia errors to close it out.

"This team has made more improvement from the start of the year to now than any team I've coached in my 16 years," Olshan, who had only one senior in his starting lineup, said. "I was proud of the effort."

Flys said having played several lengthy matches this year that ended in success benefitted his team Monday.

"These girls always play to the end," Flys said. "I told them this wouldn't be decided in the first 10 points or the first 50 points. We just played a five-set match last week and won the last set 17-15 against Campo Verde. Those matches help."

Mesquite got 13 kills from Tonge and 10 from Hawkins. Libero Makena Smith had 24 digs and setter Alicia Heilner had 50 assists. Kara Woodard and Jasmin Smith led Arcadia with 11 kills apiece. Katie Murphy had 42 assists and Katey Tolson 23 digs for the Titans.