Laura White is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Verrado High School for AZPreps365.com

BUCKEYE – Canyon View’s girls volleyball team handed Verrado its first loss in six matches on Thursday night, sweeping the Vipers, 25-19, 25-23, 25-22.

After trading points early in the opening set, Verrado lost ground when the Jaguars went on a five-point run they couldn’t answer.

“We just kept pushing and never gave up,” Canyon View coach Stephanie Parker said. “I don't think it was our best game, but we were able to work together and overcome some of the errors that we had on our side.”

That was the largest scoring gap of the night. In the second set, the Vipers rallied to close the gap to just two points, but couldn’t finish the comeback — a struggle largely due to serve-receive issues, reflected in a 52% side-out rate. 

“Serve-receive definitely got us in this game,” Verrado junior outside hitter Alyssa Ortiz said. “We have hitters to put it down. We just need to fight with a pass every single time.”

Junior middle blocker Aniah Brown led the Vipers with 10 kills, followed closely by Ortiz with eight kills. The pair consistently anchor the team’s stat sheet and provide a steady offensive presence.

Freshman defensive specialist Taylor Thomas also made an impact, bouncing back after struggling in past games. 

“Taylor had a little bit of a lull at a couple games and had some tough passes to come in,” Vipers coach Tiffany Liddile said. “But her coming in as a freshman and really stepping up has been tremendous.”

Although the Vipers lost the match, Thomas played a better game than she had in weeks. 

“I was struggling with a mental thing and I was able to bounce back from it,” Thomas said. 

Canyon View and Verrado are close rivals so the matches are always charged up and energy often helps determine the outcome.

“A big challenge was just us staying hyped the whole time,” Ortiz said. “When we got down it showed in our play. We have to just make sure every time we play them we’re playing to our best potential.” 

The Vipers came out of the gate in the final set with energy and determination, quickly building momentum with a four-point run early on. But the Jaguars answered back, rattling off seven unanswered points in the middle of the set to make it 18-14 and shift the momentum in their favor.

“This is a big rivalry game so it's always hard playing them,” Parker said. “But I think defensively we're going to still keep chugging away, communicating, and working on picking up some balls.”

Despite the setback, the team is keeping a forward-looking mindset, recognizing the opportunity to improve and grow as a young squad.

“Since we're such a young team we're going to keep growing every single year and we’re going to just keep pushing,” Ortiz said. 

And there’s always next time.

“I think we played really good,” Thomas said. “But we just didn't fight hard enough to beat them. We will next time!”

The Vipers (7-6) will travel to North Canyon (2-5) on Monday at 6 p.m. Canyon View will host Buckeye (9-5) on Monday at 6 p.m.