Aiden Blanc is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Arizona Lutheran for AZPreps365.com

Ten years removed from the school's only state title in volleyball, Arizona Lutheran looked like a championship caliber squad on Thursday night. ALA climbed to four consecutive wins for the first time all season, with a dominant sweep of Santa Cruz Valley, 3-0.

The first six points of the match were evenly split between the two teams, Arizona Lutheran then rattled off five consecutive points to force a timeout and would not trail the rest of the night. A rowdy student section helped the Coyotes remain focused despite sizable leads.

"It definitely helped keep our energy up," said senior Karin Aguilar. "We stuck to our fundamentals and really just wanted to kill it tonight."

Aguilar is a three-year varsity player, having also spent time with JV last season. She is part of a team featuring 14 upperclassmen (eight juniors and six seniors) who relied on that experience to beat a Santa Cruz team, which was swept for the third straight match.

"It's going to go a long way this year," said ALA head Coach Brad Bode. "We know we're going to go to some five set matches this year, and with that added experience they know how to do that."

ALA forced a second timeout with the score ballooned up to 19-4, and finished a strong first set with a 25-9 victory. It was a sign of things to come, with Santa Cruz held to single digit points in each of the subsequent sets.

"There's going to be some excellent teams on our schedule, and some teams that are not at that level, but no matter what we need to play at the same level," Bode said.

That level was set high to begin set two, with the Coyotes soaring to a 12-1 lead that became as high as 15 points during the set. When Santa Cruz cut the lead to 18-3 and later 18-4, it was the first and only time it won consecutive points all night. A 25-6 result would put ALA up two sets.

The Coyotes were rolling, leading by two sets and well on their way to a sweep, but with multiple matches against ranked teams on the way, Bode made sure that amongst all the smiles on the floor there was still some intensity remaining.

"We came together as a team and picked each other up" said senior Emma Ohm. "We continued to play at our level."

Ohm has been the biggest factor in Arizona Lutheran's offense, entering Thursday's match with the team lead in kills per set (1.9), hitting percentage (.269), aces per set (0.6), serving aces (37), digs (272), assists (177) and kills (115).

But the senior wasn't ready to write this one off as a completely clean match.

"We have to continue to play up at our level because as the season keeps getting harder and harder, we're going to have to be able to play up at a higher level," Ohm said.

A 25-8 third set victory sealed the match for ALA, marking its fourth straight win overall and at home, where the team has not lost since their home opener earlier this month.

Bode and his players all agreed that the match was just a precursor for the gauntlet their team is about to face. Three straight on the road matches await ALA next week, including Phoenix Country Day, who Max Preps ranks as the fourth best team in the 2A Conference.