Addison Scott is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover American Leadership Academy Gilbert-North for AZPreps365.com

GILBERT, Ariz. – American Leadership Academy Gilbert-North dominated Canyon View to gain its first home win of the season (25-23, 25-15, 25-23). 

“The message the last four weeks has been to continue to strive for excellence and to hold ourselves to a high standard,” head coach Troy Kates said. “No matter who is on the other side of the court, we need to play to our beliefs of how good volleyball looks and how good volleyball is played.” 

ALA Gilbert-North (4-0, Easy Sky 1-0) played with strong offense to keep the Canyon View Jaguars (2-3, Northwest Valley 2-1) scrambling throughout the match. The Eagles are now on a winning streak of four, all being sweeps.  

The Eagles took ownership in both the first and second set of the game by coming out ready to take charge with strong attacks and applying pressure from the service line. In the second set alone, the squad racked up a total of 15 kills and four blocks. 

Senior outside hitter Tate Willis put up a total of eight kills for the team. He carries the Eagles with the most kills so far into the season. 

Junior setter Gunner Martin has been able to rely on Willis in out-of-system plays all season in both the front and back row of the court. 

“I think the bick is great,” Martin said. “For out-of-system stuff, we work on it a ton. He hits over people. He can literally hit over everyone and he jumps really high.” 

Back row attacks have been successful for the Eagles. It has been a tactic for the team to use everyone on the court as a hitter. 

“I think it is really good to know that we can run our offense from pretty much anywhere on the court and to have guys available to do so, they are pretty good at doing it,” Kates said. “I need our setters to do it more, actually. Tate is an awesome player and we can’t wait to see how well he is going to do the rest of the year.”

However, things started to take a turn in the third set. The Jaguars started the set off ready to fight back and take a set off the Eagles. 

The pressure quickly fell onto ALA Gilbert-North as Canyon View began to push balls into the deep corners of the court and serve receivers began to miscommunicate with each other. The Eagles strived to keep the match in close points, trying to avoid the game going into four sets. 

Errors made by the Jaguars allowed the Eagles to gain five points to tie the match right up at the end. A miss swing attempt from the Canyon View Jaguars secured the win for ALA Gilbert-North. 

“We got lucky,” Kates said. “We did not come out too hot there and they changed their lineup in the third set. We did not make really good adjustments until about halfway through.” 

The Eagles take on Deer Valley at home on Wed. March 25 just before heading to the Epic Tourneys Boys Volleyball Invite. The tournament takes place March 27-28 at the ASU Student-Fitness Center in Tempe.