Harrison Fuller is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Arizona Lutheran Academy for AZPreps365.com

Tuesday night’s theme for Arizona Lutheran Academy’s (9-17-2) girls varsity volleyball match against Phoenix Country Day (14-2) was "jersey night." Everyone in the student section sported the jersey of their favorite athlete.

Three jerseys stood out from the rest — and they weren’t in the stands.

White, yellow and blue, bearing the numbers 13, 14 and 1, belonged to the three Phoenix Country Day School players who stole the show on Arizona Lutheran’s home court: Sophomore outside hitter Layla Jarvis, junior middle blocker Jodie Jones, and freshman outside hitter Layla Ossenfort.

Jarvis finished the match with seven kills, Jones finished with five and the game-winning block, and Ossenfort ended with a team-high eight kills. The three girls led the Eagles’ iron curtain front row in their 3-0 win over Arizona Lutheran. 

After getting out to an early 5-1 lead, the Coyotes surrendered the first set 24-26. 

“They definitely capitalized on the momentum swing,” Arizona Lutheran head coach Jade Wells said. “They put a lot of emphasis on serving tough. We played some really strong offense in that first set, and they were really looking to throw us off balance with serving, and they did a good job of serving us really aggressively and capitalizing on that.”

The first set featured four separate ties, suggesting the Coyotes could hang with Arizona’s No. 1-ranked 2A volleyball team. But after opening the second set tied at five, the Eagles found their stride, rattling off a 15-7 run en route to a 25-12 set victory. 

Phoenix Country Day carried its momentum into the final set, winning 25-20.

Arizona Lutheran was missing a key piece to its team that could have helped make a much more competitive match.

Sophomore middle blocker Tabitha MacCafferty leads the team in blocks, kills and aces. She sat in full uniform on the bench for the entire match. Her coach declined to comment on why she did not play.

Arizona Lutheran athletic director Justin Ohm took a positive spin on the loss. 

“PCDS is a great team, and our girls hung with them,” Ohm said. “They battled them really well. They got rolled over and said, ‘We can't beat these guys. They're number (one) in the conference.’ But we almost took two games from them there.”

Ohm says that because ALA is a smaller school – with only 238 total students – their students show up more driven to compete and play sports. ALA is full of “students that have been committed and love their coaches and love the sport and just love to be involved,” he said.

The Coyotes’ focus shifted to how they would rebound after getting swept. ALA played a 2-11 Bourgade Catholic team on Oct. 15, which it won 3-1. It next faces North Valley Christian (21-6-1) on the road on Oct. 21.