No. 5 seed Sunnyslope appeared to be in trouble Thursday night in the opening set of their Division I quarterfinal match with No. 4 Hamilton. The Vikings trailed Hamilton 7-1 quickly and Sunnyslope coach Amber LeTarte called time to settle her team down. For a few more points it didn't seem to do much good as the deficit grew to 10-1.

But from that juncture on something clicked and it was pretty much all Sunnyslope the rest of the night as the Vikings took a four-set victory over Hamilton at T. Dale Hancock Gym at Hamlton High. Scores were 16-25, 25-17, 25-16, 25-22.

"I don't know, I think we decided to be play more aggressive," LeTarte said."I know that's the best we've played this season in terms of consistency and maintaining that level. We needed to play at that level to beat them."

Sunnyslope (34-6), which moved up to D-I this season after winning three successive D-II titles, moves on to the semifinals for eighth time in the last 10 years. The Vikiings take on defending D-I champ and top-seed Desert Vista on Saturday 6 p.m. at Mesquite High School. Desert Vista swept No. 8 Basha to advance. The first semifinal Saturday features  No. 2 Xavier vs. No. 3 Gilbert. at 4 p.m. Xavier swept No. 10 Corona del Sol and Gilbert survived by rallying from an 0-2 deficit for a 3-2 decision over No. 6 Perry.

Senior outside hitter Skylar Wine led a varied attack for Sunnyslope with 17 kills and sophomore outside Kayla Matthews chipped in with 16. Matthews hit .400 for the match and burned Hamilton with three aces. Senior middle Emma Wright added nine kills and four blocks and senior opposite Libby Fleury was effective with eight kills. Setter Kayla Oleksak was on target with her sets, finishing with 47 assists.

Sunnyslope's game was in high gear from the 10-1 deficit forward. It essentially played Hamilton even the rest of the set despite losing and controlled each of the next three sets. The Vikings were tenacious in sets 2 and 3 winning rather easily. The fourth set was on its way to a similar finish, but Hamilton made a push late in the set to give its fans hope of a fifth set.

Hamilton (36-6) managed to erase a 16-11 deficit and took its first lead of the set at 18-17 after junior middle Preslie Anderson's kill. Hamilton fell behind again as the teams juggled points before deadlocking at 20. A block and kill by Hamilton's Olivia Hallaran put the Huskies up 22-20 with the Hamilton contingent going wild. Sunnyslope called its final timeout and finished with a flourish.

Setting its sights on setting Wine as it often does with a set or match on the line, Wine responded with three kills in a row for a 23-22 lead. The match ended with Hamilton taking four hits  and and then a net violation to finish it. The fourth set might not have been as close as it was except for a rash of service errors by Sunnyslope. Sunnyslope had six in the fourth set, only two in the first three sets.

Hamilton, which returns four of its starters next year, got 15 kills from Anderson, eight from sophomore Darian Clark and seven from Hallaran.