Horizon's girls volleyball team gutted out a five-set road victory at Queen Creek Tuesday night to open its season. The Lady Huskies had to scratch and claw their way to that victory winning the final two sets.

On Wednesday night Horizon opened its home schedule with always formidable Gilbert High. Only this night the clawing -- perhaps calli mauling -- was done by Gilbert.

Gilbert gradually picked up speed from the opening set and went on to an easy 25-18, 25-11, 25-8 triumph at Husky Gymnasium.

Gilbert engaged in a kill fest leaving Horizon with few if any answers past the somewhat competitive first set. Horizon played without a couple of its top players and with them or not took the court with a young squad. Gilbert on the other hand brought a lineup nearly identical to last year. That experience vs. the , bothyouthful, wounded Huskies spelled a rout. Horizon played without seniors Destiny Lewis and Ashley Person ,who are both out injured. The Huskies have only three seniors on their roster.

"Pretty much all our players out there (starting) played last year," Gilbert coach Joe Hesse said. "We had some first game jitters even though all most of these girls do is play volleyball. Our intensity wasn't that good early, but got better as the match went on. We finished strong, and got some other people in."

Seven players chimed in with at least two kills for Gilbert. Leading the pack was senior outside Makenna Martin with 14, followed by junior outsie Kaitlyn Lines and sophomore middle Krystal Blair with seven kills apiece. Junior middle Alexa Rockas finished with six and Tiffany Hurd, Alyssa Gilmore and even setter Sam Boever contributed two kills each.

"We served well and they had a hard time with that," Hesse said. "They couldn't get in system and that made it easy for us."

Gilbert dominated on the attack, at the net and made it very tough on Horizon with solid serving. Gilbert recorded 10 aces led by Chelsea Johnson and Boever with three each. A 5-0 run early in the first set with Johnson serving set the tone for Gilbert. Gilbert led 21-11 in the set and before Horizon managed to close the gap to 24-18. Martin's fifth kill of the set closed it out.

The second and third sets weren't ever close. Boever served three successive aces and six points total in the second set. The third set barely got through one rotation before it ended.

Junior outside hitter Erin Clark paced Horizon with five kills and Indigo Elmore and Karen Scanlon were next with kills apiece. Horizon looks to rebound Thursday with a home match against Perry. Gilbert visits Chandler on Thursday.