Juan Manosalva is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Gilbert Christian High School for AZPreps365.com

GILBERT — Northwest Christian overcame a slow start to defeat Gilbert Christian in four sets Thursday night, 23-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-18, in a key region matchup.

The Crusaders (16-5, 3-0) dropped the opening set but stormed back to take the next three, handing the Knights (17-2, 4-1) just their second loss of the season and first at home.

Northwest Christian jumped to an 11-8 lead in the first set with a five-point run, but Gilbert Christian answered with a surge of its own. Sophomore libero Shay Loth fueled the rally with two aces as the Knights pulled ahead, 18-15, and went on to win the set, 25-23. 

Loth finished the match with seven aces and one kill. 

"I think this was my match with the most aces so far,” Loth said. “In my past few games, I’ve been serving decent with a few missed serves and haven’t been as consistent as I’d like, but this game I really turned it around.”

The turning point came in the second set. The Knights held a 22-18 lead, but after a timeout, the Crusaders reeled off seven straight points to win 25-22.

“I told them, if you guys want it, you have to go take it,” Crusaders coach Chuck Hunter said. “They came back strong and I was really proud of the grit we had to push through and finish it.”

Northwest Christian carried that momentum into the third set, dominating with two four-point runs to win 25-17. Freshman outside hitter Izabella Bombinski tallied five kills and an ace in the set and led all players with 15 kills overall. She now has 178 kills in her debut season.

“She's shown that she's a good athlete and I’ve been giving her a lot of room to be her,” Hunter said. “She’s going to have times where she’s going to go all out, and times where she’ll put the ball down hard. I’ve got to let her breathe and be who she is, but at the same time provide corrections when it’s needed.”

The Crusaders closed out the match in the fourth set with an eight-point run followed by a four-point run to seal a 25-18 victory. Junior middle hitter Madison Nedeljkovic added 11 kills and three blocks, bringing her season totals to 116 kills and 29 blocks.

“This is definitely our best game that we've played by far this season and I'm excited to see if this will translate to our other games,” Nedeljkovic said.

Despite the loss, Gilbert Christian showed flashes of why it entered unbeaten in region play. Junior outside hitter Sienna Cathey led the Knights with 13 kills, giving her 215 on the season, while senior outside Alexia Heyn added nine kills and two aces, raising her season total to 139 kills.

“We got frustrated, and then our frustration overcame our clarity,” Heyn said. “It was really hard to find open spots because their defense was really good.”

Knights coach Andrew Rasmussen said he found positives in his team’s performance and won’t let the loss shake their focus.

“It’s early in the season and we don’t want to let one moment take us away from who we want to be,” Rasmussen said. “It was awesome to see the girls respond, but a lot of it is reminding ourselves: Who do we want to be right now?”