No. 2 Ironwood Ridge swept No. 7 ALA-Gilbert North in three straight sets Monday night to advance to the semifinal round of the 4A Conference playoffs where the Nighthawks will host No. 3 ALA-Queen Creek Thursday night.  ALA-Queen Creek beat Ironwood Ridge 3-2 at home way back on Sept. 13.

ALA-Gilbert North finished the year with a 23-17 record overall with back-to-back losses in the semifinal round after winning it all in 2023. Ironwood Ridge is 24-15 on the year after winning 10 matches in a row including big wins over No. 1 Salpointe and No. 5 Mica Mountain. The Lancers and Thunderbolts are scheduled to play in the other semifinal match Thursday night. Salpointe beat Mica Mountain twice this year but it’s hard to beat a top team three times.

Ironwood Ridge beat ALA-Gilbert North 3-1 to start the season back on Sept. 3 and this match played out similar with the Nighthawks breaking out from a 12-12 tie in the first set to take it 25-20, with sophomore Kallie George and junior Ashlyn Quiri coming through with six kills each, to go up 1-0 and then George took over in the second set with eight more kills, including four kills down the stretch, to push the Eagles back after the team battled back from being down 18-14 to tying the set 18-18. Senior Isabela Kemper also came up big with a score and then a block to make it 21-18. The 25-20 victory made it 2-0.

The Nighthawks were in command to start the third set, and the team led 6-1, but the Eagles tied the set up 7-7 and then eventually went up 16-12. Senior setter Lydia Litkenhus moved the ball around and she hit junior Lillian Merchant to cut the Eagle lead down to 17-16 and Quiri had two more kills in the stretch to put the Nighthawks back up 19-18. An ace from Quiri made it 21-19 later in the set but Laynee Howard scored to cut the Ironwood Rideg lead back down to 21-20.

A violation at the net made it 22-20 and then senior Maria Lemas put down a block to make it 23-20. George scored to make it 24-20 and then junior Madeline Flowers served up an ace for the 25-20 victory.

Litkenhus had an unofficial 33 assists with George pulling down 19 of those, Quire added 13 and Kemper had six. For ALA-Gilbert North, seniors Kylie Christiansen and Kalley Cutchen combined for 25 assists, Howard had eight kills and senior Kristyn Grantham had seven.