Connor Van Ligten
ASU Student Journalist

Mountain View soars in sweep of Tolleson Union

September 17, 2019 by Connor Van Ligten, Arizona State University


Freshman Reece Fishbeck hits a spike in traffic against Tolleson Union Tuesday. (ConnorLitgen/AZPreps365)

Connor Litgen is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain View for AZPreps365

Mountain View coach Clark Fleming credited consistency as a key factor in Mountain View’s first home win this season, a sweep of Tolleson Union Tuesday.

“It’s a big step forward for us, especially considering that we’ve only had a few practice days to really implement that [consistency] and execute it better,” said Fleming. “So the fact that we can show that in only two practices we can increase our consistency and serve receive dramatically, that’s great for us.”

Senior Izzie Short cited an alternate reason for the team’s victory.

“Kickin’ booty,” said Short. “Let’s be honest.”

Mountain View certainly did that. The Toros won all three sets comfortably, and were in rhythm nearly the whole contest.

Despite the victory, senior Faith Jackson said the team needs to improve.

“Making sure that the middle front blockers are putting more pressure on and being more of a threat,” said Jackson. “We just want to improve everything.”

The first two sets featured brilliant and dominant offense. The Toros had no issues executing the serve receive that had been troubling them in prior games this season.

“Our serve receive was consistent,” said sophomore Briley Decker. “And that helped us be in our system more.”

Mountain View displayed an increased offensive rhythm and more team synergy, leading to some big scoring runs in the first set, a 25-13 win, and in the second set, a 25-19 win.

The third set proved to be more challenging. Lots of back and forth rallies and tough defensive play from both teams lead to a 15-13 score in favor of Mountain View. 

However, Mountain View took control and finished the sweep with a 25-16 set win. 

“I really don’t think it was us changing a ton of stuff,” said Fleming. “I think the ball started to fall, and Tolleson’s defense got tired and they started to loosen up a bit.”

“Consistency was the key,” said junior Angie Wagner of the team pulling away in the third set. “We were consistent at the beginning of the game and [midway through the third] we got back to that.”

Mountain View improves to 4-2 plays Queen Creek Wednesday.