Tyler Konrad is a student at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism assigned to cover Chaparral High School for AZPreps365.com 

The Chaparral girls volleyball team went into Pinnacle on Tuesday and won 3-0, extending its winning streak to four games and improving to 14-7 on the season, 2-2 in 6A Desert Valley region play.

Hot off of a championship game win in the Goldwater Volleyball Festival, the Firebirds started the first set up 5-0.  After the Pioneers called a timeout, the Firebirds answered with an 8-1 run to extend the lead to 14-4, which forced another Pinnacle timeout. Setter Kaycee Atkinson credited that run to the importance of serving.

“We struggle at serving most of the time, so we try to focus on where we are going to serve,” Atkinson said. “We also focus on winning in the service line because that can build momentum for our team. Especially when it comes to great teams and great players, we need to serve well to win.”

The Firebirds and Pioneers traded points until the set was over, and Chaparral won 25-13. Atkinson led the Firebirds with seven assists to cap off her performance in the first set.

The second set was a wild one and came down to the wire. Chaparral started slowly after going down 3-1 but responded quickly with a 5-1 run. Pinnacle answered with a 3-0 run of its own, and the crowd was letting Chaparral hear it, which led to head coach Chad Speer calling his first timeout of the set.

Speer’s timeout call proved to be timely and effective, leading the Firebirds on another 5-1 run, with three aces from freshman Lexi King. King’s aces forced the Pioneers to call their first timeout of the set, which flipped the momentum right back to Chaparral.

King knew once she had silenced the crowd for the third time, the momentum had flipped in favor of Chaparral.

“The momentum shift was huge,” King said. “I think when we score points off a serve, that is huge, not only for the team, but also the bench and the crowd. Those aces fired us up and made us more confident in our blocks, swings and passes.” 

After the timeout, Chaparral led 14-9, and both teams kept trading runs after that. A 4-0 run by the Pioneers brought them back to within a single point at 21-20.

But the Firebirds had other plans. With the Pioneers serving, Chaparral went on a 4-1 run to win the second set, 25-21. Speer credited the home crowd for adding excitement to the match.

“I think crowds like that add a lot of character to the game and it excites me and hopefully the girls,” said Speer. “At the end of the day I do not think the fans affect how we play, I think we affect how we play and that’s how we got out of that hole.”

At the start of the third set, both teams traded points early until the Firebirds went on a 12-4 run to take an 18-10 lead.

The Pioneers answered with a 5-0 run of their own, and the crowd surged, which caused Speer to call his first timeout of the set at 18-15. The Firebirds responded, ending the set on a 7-2 run to defeat the Pioneers, 25-17. 

Speer was proud of the Firebirds for their dominant win but knows a more challenging road is ahead.

“I do not want us to get ahead of ourselves, we play Mountain Ridge tomorrow (Wednesday). We have a big game Thursday against Liberty,” said Speer. “They should be big games that come down to who controls the service line and who controls serve receive.”