The #4 Xavier Gators hosted the #9 Desert Vista Thunder last night on the Brophy College Prep campus for a real barn-burner; a veritable nail-biter. Please pardon my shameless use of clichés.

These two teams met on September 30th at Desert Vista, and the Gators swept the Thunder 3-0. Xavier came in to Thursday evening's matchup ranked #4 in the 6A conference; DV #9. Then, Xavier won the first set convincingly 25-12.

So, what would you expect to happen? Well, not what we saw last night.

At 7-7, I felt like we were staring at a close, tightly-contested game. But then, Xavier decided to go in a different direction. 

After a run of three, the scoreboard read 10-7 Xavier. A run of four established a 14-8 Gator lead. Later on,  a six-point outburst, with Kalenna Thiele serving, resulted in a 20-9 tally. Then, after one meaningless point by Desert Vista, Xavier added four more consecutive points, one point shy of finalizing a victory.  But three serves later, Xavier sealed the win 25-12.

The highlights from the first set vividly demonstrate the definition of power volleyball. There's no way DV can recover from this . . . right?

Early in the second set, Xavier scored a point to narrow Desert Vista's lead to 8-7, giving the Gators a false sense that this set was going to be close.

It was at that point the Thunder floodgates opened up. 

Desert Vista released an eleven-point deluge to lead 19-7. Xavier could not battle back enough in order to make this set competitive. Desert Vista wins 25-17. Sets are tied at one apiece.

Xavier took a 6-1 lead early. But Desert Vista used runs of four and three to eventually tie the score at 14.

The score would be knotted at 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, and 22. But then, the Thunder finished with three straight points to win the set 25-22 and take the lead in sets 2-1, needing just one more to hand the Gators a rare regular-season loss.

Xavier began the fourth set with a promising 4-1 lead. A short time later the score rested on a 6-4 Xavier advantage.

And then, the Gators initiated a streak of five consecutive points, with Tessa Larkin serving, to distance themselves from the Thunder 11-4.

But DV kept up the fight and pulled within three points, 21-18. However, with Kalenna Thiele serving, the last four points belonged to Xavier. Xavier evened the sets at two apiece.

Xavier instituted a five-point run early, with Maya Nash serving, to give themselves a 6-1 lead. Later, a streak of three consecutive points gave them a 9-2 advantage. But don't get too comfortable yet.

Needing just fifteen points to win the fifth set of a five-set match, Xavier found themselves stuck at fourteen (14-8).

Desert Vista, not going down without a fight, manufactured a streak of four consecutive points to narrow Xavier's lead to two, 14-12.

But worry not, Sahmone Wadsworth launched two consecutive power-packed attacks from the right side against the Desert Vista defense on the final play to secure a hard-fought Xavier victory for the set (15-12) and the match (3-2).

REMAINING SCHEDULE
Xavier remains ranked #4 in the 6A Conference. Their remaining two regular season matches will be played next Tuesday and Wednesday at Corona del Sol, 10/27, and Millennium, 10/28, respectively. Round One of State takes place at Xavier on Thursday, November 5.