Mountain View’s boys volleyball team moved a step closer to its first state tournament appearance since 2011 on Tuesday night.
The Mountain Lions, ranked fifth in Division II, cruised to a 3-1 (25-19, 23-25, 25-15, 25-17) win against northwest-side rival No. 9 Ironwood Ridge, with the postseason just weeks away.
“This game is huge,” said Mountain View first-year coach Lindsey Spivey. “Not only for playoff rankings but morale, for the school’s reputation – it’s huge.”
Senior outside hitter Griffin Whithed had 15 kills and three aces, junior Noah Elmer three blocks and junior setter Sean Losik 31 assists as Mountain View improved to 12-1 in power points matches.
Elmer said win is so big because it keeps their undefeated section record after the Mountain Lions went 6-11 last year.
The victory improved Mountain View’s sectional record to 7-0 and moved them to two matches ahead of I-Ridge.
“I think it’s huge win,” Losik said. “Last year we lost to Tucson, we lost to Salpointe – both in three ¬– we lost to Ironwood in four, we lost to CDO in five and we have wins over all of them so far this year.
“I think it just shows how hard we’ve been working and how far we’ve come from last year.”
After winning the first set 25-19, Mountain View lost the second set 25-23. The Mountain Lions took the lead at 18-17 and tied it 22-22 before I-Ridge pulled away.
“I think the difference was we got a little too confident and we let them in,” Spivey said. “They were mad, they came back, fighting hard, just like any good team would and let them in just a little bit too far.”
The Mountain Lions responded in the next set, leading by 23-12 at one point.
“Our coach, kind of brought us together mentally and just said, ‘You need to bring it together and serve-receives needed to be cleaned up’ and that’s where we got it cleaned up and that got us the win,” Whithed said.
Mountain View has won nine regular season matches in a row and four in a row overall. It travels to play at No. 20 Catalina Foothills on Thursday.
“I’m so proud of these boys and they’ve come so far from last year,” Spivey said. “Being a first-year head coach in general is a little intimidating but to come out and just dominate the season, it’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever done my entire life.”
