Already down one set and losing 20-13 in the second set to defending 4A state champion Estrella Foothills, Ironwood Ridge was in need of something short of a miracle to avoid a sweep at home Tuesday night. The Wolves beat the Nighthawks 25-16 in the first set and a loss here would practically guarantee a quick match but that “miracle” came in the way of junior transfer Ashlyn Quiri and sophomore standout Kallie George. Fed by senior steer Lydia Litkenhus, the duo scored almost at will from the left side to cut the lead down to 21-20. Still, the Wolves responded to take a commanding 24-21 lead only to have Quiri and George catch fire again to lead the team to an epic 30-28 win to tie the match up 1-1

Ironwood Ridge (6-5) went on to beat Estrella Foothills 3-2 and most of that victory can be traced back to the end of the second set. The Wolves (8-2) came at Ironwood Ridge with senior standouts Sadie Snyder (22 kills), Kaylee O’Conner (13) and Cadynce Kirkpatrick (8) but the team also cashed in on 18 aces, but only four of those came after the third set. Evolving, changing pieces on the court and executing helped change the trajectory of the match.

“We're working through it and I think two things happened,” Ironwood Ridge head coach Bill Lang explained. “We made a couple switches, but I was tracking their serving routes, and we were front loading it better, so I think we became a little bit more confident. They were pretty predictable at that point and when you have five sets, you got a lot of data. Absolutely we weren't ready to play but five sets make you ready. We got confidence in that second set.”

Estrella Foothills led 12-8 in the first set before closing it out 25-16 to go up 1-0 and then the Wolves responded to the second set loss with a 25-19 win in the third set to the take control once again with a 2-1 lead but the Nighthawks returned the favor with a 25-17 victory in the fourth set to tie it all up again 2-2.

“The win was huge for us. We lost to them 3-1 at their place last year and Sadie had a career night. It's reinforcement for us that maybe we're back a little bit, you know, Ridge has been kind of down for a while. I think it's good. We talk a lot about culture. We talk about grit. How hard can we work? How hard can we swing? Can we play these teams with confidence?”

Some of that “grit” was display in the fifth set when Snyder put her team up 9-8 and the Nighthawks responded to close it out 15-10. Estrella Foothills is now 8-2 on the year after going 34-1 last year, 31-2 in 2023 and 32-1 the year before. That run includes two state championships and a runner-up finish under former head coach Jennifer Gonzales, who stepped down after last season. Her assistant Michael Matteson stepped in and the transition has been pretty smooth.

“It’s a storied program for sure,” Matteson said. Jennifer did an amazing job building up what we had and I came in as her assistant and we complimented each other so well, she actually assisted me on the boy’s side. We were able to build these two programs up to be the successes that they are.”

The road to the 4A state championship still runs through Estrella Foothills but Matteson sees need for improvement.

“The perseverance at the end of the match, when things were tight. When things are going great, we’re on top of things but when things get tight, we just need to dig deep and learn how to persevere.”

Ironwood Ridge hosts Catalina Foothills on Thursday and the Wolves will travel to paly ALA-Queen Creek on the same night.