Ben Davis is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Cactus Shadows High School for AZPreps365.com

PHOENIX – Cactus Shadows dropped its second match of the season Wednesday night, coming up short to St. Mary’s in a hard-fought, five-set contest at home.

After losing the first two sets, 23-25 and 21-25, the Falcons rallied to take the third and fourth sets, 25-23 and 25-15, gaining momentum heading into the final set. However, the Knights fought to a 15-10 win to secure the upset.

St. Mary’s entered the match on a two-game losing streak and held a 4-5 overall record in the conference, but St. Mary’s coach September Lopez claims the previous setbacks only helped motivate the team and fuel this impressive performance.

“We’ve been in a slump, we haven’t been winning home games so we have to capitalize on being aggressive for away games,” Lopez said. “We live and die by our energy, and they showed up with energy today.”

Even though Cactus Shadows appeared to be the fresher team late in the game, the Falcons couldn’t overcome costly errors. Falcons coach Jeff Dumbrell cited defensive mistakes and the team’s serving as major factors to the loss.

“The biggest factor was our blocking,” Dumbrell said. “We need to worry about our side of the net more than anything. We are getting better at that, but still have some things to work on. We had 16 missed serves tonight. It’s hard to win a match with that many missed serves.”

Even with an error-prone performance, the victory remained in reach for the team as the game came down to one final set. After a dominant 25-15 fourth set, Cactus Shadows looked poised to close out the game.

The fifth set was tied 8-8 before the Knights capitalized on more Falcons mistakes and went on a 6-0 run to reach match point at 14-8. The Falcons were expected to walk through St. Mary’s on their home court, but were now a single point away from a sizable upset. 

Cactus Shadows senior Mateja Cousins responded with a crafty offensive play making it 9-14, and stepped up to serve. Cousins sent it deep into Knights territory, and following a lengthy rally junior Sammy Ryan stuffed St. Mary’s at the net to keep the Falcons alive. Cousins again served it over the net, hoping to narrow the gap more, but a composed finishing sequence from the Knights froze the Falcons in front of their home crowd.

Despite the loss, Cactus Shadows senior Karease Broeker led the Falcons with 19 kills and several key plays in the third and fourth sets. Her assessment of the defeat reveals the Falcons underestimated their opponents and failed to adapt as the match was unfolding.

“I think we didn’t come prepared,” Broeker said. “We came in thinking we were going to take them right on, and we learned a lot and we struggled a lot, but we are definitely excited to see them again and take the win next time. We weren’t playing as a team and weren’t able to pick up the pieces we needed to.”

Cactus Shadows has dropped two of their last three matches, but they will have an opportunity at redemption when they face the Knights again in the penultimate game of their regular season on Oct. 27, but both teams have several games in front of them before the rematch. 

St. Mary’s (5-5) hosts Saguaro (4-5) on Thursday at 6 p.m. 

Cactus Shadows (9-2) travels to Mesquite (9-0) on Monday at 6 p.m.