Liberty moved to 2-1 on the year after the Lions beat Tucson 3-1 on the road Tuesday night. The Badgers fell to 1-3 despite putting up a good fight under first year head coach Malakai DeHuelbes.

DeHuelbes graduated from Tucson in 2021 before moving over to Regis College in Massachusetts, graduating this past spring. He earned his first victory over Ironwood Ridge on Friday in an epic 3-2 battle after being down two sets to one. It looked like the Badgers might force another five-set match Tuesday night but the Lions pulled out the fourth set 26-24 to avoid the fifth set.

In the fourth, the Badgers built a 17-15 lead but the Lions went on a 4-1 run to take a 22-18 lead and then freshman Fountain Wang put down a block later in the set to put Liberty up 23-20. It looked like that might be it for the Badgers but senior Aynsley Jones fueled a comeback on a block of his own and a kill and the match ultimately came up tied 24-24.

Junior Legend White ended up with 29 assists and he hit Wang to make it 25-24 and then White scored for the 26-24 victory.

Liberty pulled out the first set 25-23, after pulling away from a 22-22 tie, to go up 1-0 but the Badgers took the second set in similar fashion, taking a 22-22 tie to a 25-23 victory to tie the match up 1-1.

Liberty went up 21-10 in the third set, only to see the Badgers go on a 6-2 run to cut the lead down to 23-16 but the gap was too wide and the Lions took the third set 25-16 to go up 2-1.

Wang finished with 16 kills to lead the Lions and Caleb Sherrin had eight. Isaac Miranda had 14 kills for Tucson, Jones added nine and Vaughan Lancaster finished with 25 assists.

Tucson will take part in the Lair Invitational hosted by Sunnyside from March 20-21 and Liberty, coached by Greg Freeman, will travel to Sunrise Mountain (1-2) Wednesday night.

Legend White (6) goes up against Salvador Sorilla. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)