Summer McDonough (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

No. 3 Pusch Ridge beat No. 21 Sabino, 25-21, 25-27, 25-15, 25-21 Tuesday night to help solidify a playoff position in the 3A South Region along with No. 6 Tanque Verde.

Pusch Ridge (10-1 in power-ranking matches, 6-1 in region play) lost a five-set match to Tanque Verde (8-1, 5-0) two weeks ago but both squads are in the line for the two automatic berths awarded to region teams in the 3A Conference regardless of ranking. Sabino (3-6, 3-2) is now in third place in the region after dropping matches to both Tanque Verde and Pusch Ridge.

There are still plenty of region matches left in the regular season so region positions can change but the 3A Conference has a 16-team play-in tournament, which means other teams in the 3A South Region like No. 22 Empire (3-5, 2-2) and even No. 29 Sahuarita (3-7, 3-3) have a realistic shot at post season play.

Pusch Ridge junior standout Summer McDonough recorded eight kills in the first set to help pace the Lions to a 25-21 win but the Sabercats sprinted out to an 8-1 lead in the second set and held on for a 27-25 win to even the match up. As mentioned before, the Lions went on to take the third set 25-15 and the fourth set 25-21 for the win.

McDonough finished with 23 kills and fellow junior Sofia Fetsis added 12 more while Jewel McDonough collected 35 assists. Annie Pena and Kaiya Dublin and Leah McAdams led Sabino.

In 5A action from Southern Arizona, No. 7 Ironwood Ridge (7-3, 2-0) swept No. 15 Cienega (5-4, 1-1) Tuesday night to take control of the 5A Southern Region with No. 12 Marana Mountain View (6-2, 1-0) traveling to Ironwood Ridge on Wednesday.