Emily Robinson led Cienega with 13 kills. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

No. 15 Cienega beat No. 6 Ironwood Ridge 17-25, 27-25, 25-13 and 25-21 Thursday night to stay alive in the 5A Southern Region. The loss dropped the Nighthawks to 11-4 in power-ranking matches and 5-1 in region play while the Bobcats moved to one match back at 10-5 and 5-2.

The Nighthawks have two more region matches scheduled with a trip to No. 16 Marana Mountain View (8-5, 2-3) coming on Tuesday, Oct. 17 followed by a trip to No. 18 Sahuaro (7-5, 2-3) on Thursday, Oct. 19. The Bobcats have one region match remaining, a home-match against No. 31 Buena (4-9, 0-5) on Tuesday, Oct. 24.

Assuming Cienega beats Buena, Ironwood Ridge needs to win both matches to take the region title and the automatic playoff berth that comes with it. The 5A Conference has a play-in tournament so it would be advantageous to finish the regular season ranked in the top eight to avoid the play-in tournament (teams 9-24).

In the 5A Sonoran Region, No. 21 Marana (9-4, 6-0) can clinch the region title with a win at No. 25 Poston Butte (8-4, 3-2) on Thursday, Oct. 19.

The Nighthawks took the first set over Cienega rather easily, 25-17, but the Bobcats sprinted out to a 12-1 lead in the second set and then 16-5. The Nighthawks went on a 12-1 run to tie the set up at 17. Katie Birtcil was instrumental down the stretch with four kills and an ace to help put Ironwood Ridge up 22-21 but Cienega outside Ashley Robinson tied things up again at 22-22.

Breanna Boch put the Nighthawks up 23-22 but the set moved back to a tie only to have the Nighthawks go back up 24-23 on a service error by Cienega. The Nighthawks returned the favor with a serve into the net to make it 24-24. Ironwood Ridge went back up 25-24 but Holly Stutz put down a kill to avoid the set-point and she scored the winning point moments later for the 27-25 win.

The final moments of the second set proved to be the difference with Cienega running out to a 25-13 win in the third set to go up 2-1.

Birtcil recorded seven of her 18 kills in the fourth set to help put the Nighthawks up 18-16 but a service error and an ace from Stutz stopped the momentum. The two teams played to a 20-20 tie before Emily Robinson came up with a block, Kami Steinbacher scored and then blocked a point herself to put the Bobcats up 23-20.

Boch recorded her team-high 19th kill but the Bobcats ran off two quick points, with Emily Robinson coming up with a winning block for the 25-21 final.

Boch had her 19 kills and Birtcil had 18 while Taylor Hatch collected 46 assists for Ironwood Ridge. For Cienega, Emily Robinson had 13 kills and her sister Ashley Robinson added 11 with Annabelle Somoza putting together 28 assists. The difference came in the amount of digs the Bobcats collected.

Natalie Lubben had 21 digs, Chelsey Harrison had 20 and Ashely Robinson added 14 while Stutz recorded six blocks.

NOTE: Ironwood Ridge head coach Bill Lang is sitting at 1,004 (652-352) matches coached, a Southern Arizona record.  He needs 21 wins to tie former Sahuaro coach Sandy Novak with 673.