Zane Cox is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Sunrise Mountain for AZPreps365.com

SURPRISE — Sunrise Mountain volleyball team's struggling season continues after a 3-1 loss at Willow Canyon.

Coming off a season in which the Mustangs played in the state championship game, they find themselves 12-14, 2-2 Northwest Valley Region. They needed a good statement win on Monday night in an effort to turn their season around. 

Unfortunately for the Mustangs, they ran into a good Willow Canyon team, and it got even worse for Sunrise Mountain. 

Willow Canyon came out hot in the first set, scoring eight of the last nine points. It looked like it would be a clean sweep for the Wildcats. 

Senior Shia Chancellor set the tone for the Wildcats with 6 kills in the first set alone. She finished with 18 kills on the match. 

Not only did the Wildcats start off hot, but the Mustangs “started off slow," Mustangs head coach Brandi Jans said. 

“Our first set set the tone, and we just had to play catch-up the remainder of the match,” Jans said. 

Throughout the match, the Mustangs often fell behind early when the Wildcats served. Whether it was an ace or bad positioning, it was “very off,” Jans said. 

After dropping the first set 17-25, the Mustangs lost the second as well, 25-27, but things got better and were more competitive. 

That competitive edge started with the senior leader and the libero Hailey Brueggeman. 

Brueggeman showed strong emotion and displayed leadership throughout the match, and was crucial to the Mustangs' defense. She finished with 17 digs as well as clutch hustle plays that proved to be big down the stretch. 

“She keeps that ball off the floor,” Jans said, “She gets the momentum going, and she is just a huge impact for us.” 

That momentum continued in the third set for the Mustangs, who won, 25-18. 

Brielle Barrois got the attack established in the third set with big, powerful kills. She finished with seven kills on the match, three of them in the third set. 

A big swing in the match was felt when Brueggeman began to dig and became really reliable on defense. 

Early in the match, Willow Canyons' Chancellor was making a big impact and was almost shut down later in the game by Brueggeman, who made dig after dig. 

"They were hitting really hard, and their serves are going high, so I just stayed really low and just kept my shoulders down,” Brueggeman said. 

Brueggeman also finished with four consecutive aces in the third set to help the Mustangs finish the set with the last six points. 

The fourth and final set was back and forth the entire set. Each team went on mini runs of their own, the entire set. 

It was tied 24-24 when Jans subbed in senior Brynlee Haugen, who finished a long rally with a huge kill to make it 25-24. 

Chancellor and the Wildcats came back with a kill of her own to even the scoring at 25 apiece. 

“All night they had really tough serves and got us out of our system a lot,” Brueggeman said. 

The tie broke after Haugen answered with another kill of her own. Two of Haugen's four kills on the match came in the fourth set tie-breakers. 

In the end, it wasn’t enough for the Mustangs, dropping the fourth set 27-29.

“We need to prepare better and have a better routine going into the first set to be able to win these types of games,” Jans said. 

The Mustangs next play in the Rise N Roar Classic Oct. 9 at Millennium High School.