Sebastian Friar is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Phoenix Christian for AZPreps365

PHOENIX – Through the bumps and bruises, Phoenix Christian girls volleyball takes a tough loss to St. John Paul. 

In what was a pivotal game for the Phoenix Christian Cougars fighting for a playoff spot, they could never quite get off and running against the St. John Paul Lions. The game ended in a clean sweep 3-0 in favor of the Lions which dropped Phoenix Christian to 5-10 on the season.  

Cougars head coach Terry Sutter recognized his team struggled to start each set strong, falling behind early and often.

“It’s not usually our thing, but tonight it was,” Sutter said. “That first rotation that we’re in should be our best rotation."

That lineup Sutter was referring to included Brooklyn Clark serving along with Hannah Fisher and Harlow Converti in the back row.

The first two sets of the game, the Lions started off with four unanswered points, and five unanswered to start the third and final set. 

What seemed to be working for St. John Paul was multiple great hits and blocks they had on Phoenix Christian. Cougars senior Hannah Fisher recognized the effort from her opponent. 

“They’re a great team and I think they played really good tonight,” Fisher said. “They took good swings and good hits and we didn’t execute that.”

It was going to be an uphill battle for the Phoenix Christian Cougars missing two middles in Claire Dutcher and Layla Rabody. 

Coach Sutter had to move Charissa Brown, who normally plays on the right side, into the middle to make up for the absences.

With two players already out, Phoenix Christian had a couple moments where they held their breath on more injuries. 

In the second set, Hannah Fisher took a hard fall against the wall. Later in the game Charissa Brown took a ball right off the face after a hard hit came right at her. Both players were fine and able to finish the contest.

Despite the loss, a key moment to build on happened in the second set of the game. Phoenix Christian was down 10-1 which led to Sutter calling a timeout and huddling up with his team.

A big goal for Sutter was to calm his team down. He hoped to get the Cougars back to the basics and play clean vollyball. 

“We make our serves, we get into the right position defensively and we’re going to be just fine,” Sutter said.

That led to the Cougars showing some fight, scoring three unanswered points as it looked like they found some solutions. 

That was short lived as the Lions ended up winning that second set 25-17 but the fight was shown by the Cougars. 

Phoenix Christian will go back to the drawing board and that starts with leaning on each other according to junior left hitter Leah Walker. 

“We’re always keeping each other accountable,” Walker said. “That will help us get better than last year.”

The Cougars will look to bounce back and finish strong in their last three games, starting on Oct. 22 against a tough Camp Verde team.