The Arizona College Prep girls volleyball team proved their skill offensively and defensively, defeating Fountain Hills to tie for the top spot in the 3A Metro East Region.

The Arizona College Prep Knights defeated the defending Class 3A champions, the Fountain Hills Falcons, in three sets Tuesday night. This Class 3A Metro East matchup played a crucial role in determining who will win the region, with only a couple matches left in the regular season.

The Knights (19-6, 6-1 in region) won the third and final set with the closest margin of the night. Coming off a timeout, ACP looked the hottest they had all night. They strung together a 4-0 run to take a 24-19 lead. At match point. Fountain Hills (22-7, 6-1) , fought back and took the next two points, tightening the score to 24-21.

To stop the Falcons’ momentum, Knights coach Heather Orr called timeout.

“She talked about how important this game was,” ACP junior Julia Golichowski said. “The main focus of this game was to not worry about all the people in the stands, but it was to focus on having fun and playing ACP volleyball.”

ACP looked the more focused of the two teams. Fountain Hills continually struggled to predict the Knights’ strategy.

Throughout all three sets, one of the Falcons’ main issues was keeping the rally alive after a block.

Offensively, ACP relied more on straight spikes, while Fountain Hills tried to mix in soft hits over the net. In the early rallies, Knights junior Krista Rowan’s blocking was making it difficult for the Falcons to get the ball past the net. And when it did get through her arms, senior Daria Sukhareva was diving all over the court, saving any point within her reach from going to the Falcons.

In the teams’ first matchup of the season, in early October, Fountain Hills beat ACP 3-1.

“We didn’t have all 12 of our players before, and we played them super tough, which was really encouraging for us,” Orr said. “We also made plenty of mistakes. We missed nine serves for that match. So for the past two weeks, we’ve been working on getting better in those situations.”

Orr added that their goal coming into this matchup was to sideout in the first few attempts to get the ball on serve sooner, and that they did.

The biggest factor in ACP’s win was its ability to take momentum away from Fountain Hills, preventing it from building a long run.

“We’ve recently been talking about executing,” Sukhareva said. “In the past, our coach tried to emphasize making a good effort, but now that’s changed to getting the job done. Not just putting in effort but making sure that you get the results.”

ACP and Fountain Hills, now tied at the top of the 3A Metro East standings, each has one more regional matchup left in the regular season.