Tia Reid is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover North Canyon High School for AZPreps365.

North Canyon High School girls’ volleyball (4-8, 4-7) traveled into hostile territory Tuesday night to take on conference foe South Mountain High School (7-4, 7-4) in Phoenix. 

The Rattlers fought hard, erasing multiple large point deficits throughout the four sets. However, the Jaguars would ultimately prevail 23-25, 26-24, 25-17, 25-23.

Considering the way the first set started, it’s a wonder the North Canyon Rattlers were able to come out on top to start the match. The Rattlers stepped onto the floor cold and allowed the Jaguars to jump out to an early 6-0 lead. 

Between solid play from senior libero and defensive specialist Lizette Gonzalez in the back row and thundering points early on from sophomore outside hitter Julia Abdelsalam, it seemed North Canyon was outmatched from the beginning. 

However, South Mountain’s mistakes allowed the Rattlers to claw their way back into contention. Despite all the power Abdelsalam displayed, her control was inconsistent early on. This, combined with adjustments made by North Canyon sophomore middle blocker Jonni Brown to block multiple attacks by the dynamic outside hitter, allowed the Rattlers to chip away at the deficit.

After trailing the entire set, the Rattlers came out of a timeout ready to strike. They tied the Jaguars 21-21 and took their first lead on the next point. Once they jumped in front, they finished off the job and took the first set.

The well-timed pause worked in North Canyon head coach Kinsey Pease’s favor as she was able to get her team in the right mindset to secure the set one win.

“I probably told them, like, ‘Now or never. We’ve got to turn it on now. We can’t just expect something to be happening. We’ve got to make it happen,’” Pease said. “Like, especially in a situation like that when we’re down by like six to eight points late in the game, you’ve got to do something different in order for something different to happen.”

The momentum built on the tail end of the first set carried into the second set, as the two teams looked far more evenly matched. Not only did the Rattlers look more comfortable on the court, but some of their star players started to come alive.

Senior outside hitter Emilia Betlej let her presence be known with some well-timed and well-placed kills. Senior setter Abi Stafford helped set Betlej up for many of these plays in addition to sprinting to every corner of the court, trying to prevent balls from hitting the floor.

“As the setter, you have to get like every second touch, and then I also have to be able to get back to defense so I can receive the digs,” Stafford said. “So, I guess the motivation [for running after every ball] is setting up my hitters so they can end the play.”

Despite the Rattlers’ efforts, South Mountain was able to piece together a comeback of its own, usurping the lead after being down 22-16. And while North Canyon pushed back against the Jaguars, South Mountain ultimately secured the win in the second set.

The third set was more carryover from the second. After a relatively quiet second set and start to the third, Abdelsalam emerged once again as a force. As the Jaguars began sending the ball in her direction more often, her repeated attacks were too strong for the Rattlers to withstand.

“I think the biggest [thing] we tried to adjust to was [Abdelsalam],” said North Canyon senior libero Mindy Stafford. “She was definitely killing us on a lot of those balls. It was mainly trying to read where our blocks were because there was a hole in it, so trying to read where they were going so that we could cover that spot.”

As the match began to wear both teams down, mistakes became more and more frequent. While many of South Mountain’s mistakes were physical – such as attack errors and service errors – North Canyon’s struggles were primarily communicative and mental.

“Just really keeping up the energy and fighting for that spot to keep winning, because I feel like our biggest issue is mentality, and like we just need to keep [the energy] up,” Stafford said. “I feel like today was a really good game where we kept pushing.”

Betlej added, “I think we just have to focus on keeping our heads up when we get stuck in a rut and when we’re down points. Multiple times today, which doesn’t happen often, we came back from being six points down, and we can come back from those ruts, so we’ve just got to keep our heads up.”

The Rattlers once again battled their way back to a one-point gap in the fourth set, but a punctuating Abdelsalam kill sent the Rattlers home with another loss.

Despite the loss and large point swings, the energy in the gym never dipped. The Rattler players and fans were loud from start to finish.

“We have so many seniors this year that have been playing together for a really long time, so I just think that their team bond really helps with that,” Pease said. “They’re very close. They’ve been close for a long time on and off the court, so I really think that that was the key, is their relationship and their play that they’ve had for the last four years.”

With plenty of practice time before their next game against McClintock High School on Oct. 17, North Canyon will be able to get back in the gym to work on and improve in several areas of its game.