Nico Battita is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Arizona Lutheran for AZPreps365.com

In a highly anticipated matchup between the No. 3 and No. 4 girls volleyball teams, Corona Del Sol upset Sunnyslope in a thrilling match Thursday night.

While the score shows Corona dominating with a 3-0 sweep, each set was back and forth and there were some incredible rallies between the two teams,  but the Aztecs prevailed 26-24, 25-19 and 25-18.

Corona won the first set behind junior Hayden Conner, in thrilling back-and-forth action after trailing for most of the set. Both Conner and senior team caption Alyssa Aguayo led Corona’s second set win and Corona’s final set win was capped off by an incredible 11-2 comeback run to take the match.

Leading up to the match Sunnyslope was ranked No. 3 in the state by MaxPreps, while Corona was fourth.

That will probably change by the time the initial AIA rankings come out on October 1.

Senior Georgi Stein led the way for the Vikings in the first set, with three consecutive kills and multiple diving saves. Sunnyslope led the first set for the first 20 points, however, the Aztecs would not back down, always keeping the score within one to two points.

This clearly paid off for them with a late surge to overtake the Vikings in the final few points and give them a 1-0 lead.

The theme of the second set was runs for the Aztecs, as it went on two separate 5-0 and 7-0 runs. Aguayo finished the Vikings off with three kills in the Aztecs’ last four points, to which Sunnyslope simply couldn’t respond.

In the final set, the runs continued for the Aztecs, but not without some hard-fought action.

Multiple points went into long rallies, some lasting even close to a minute to which “oohhs” and “aahhs” could be heard from the crowd. However, Aguayo and Corona were able to finish the sweep with an 11-2 run that Sunnyslope again couldn’t come back from.

Coach Amber Geer said Sunnyslope's inabliblty to sustain their usual level of play. 

“We had moments of the play that we are used to, the play that we are capable of, and then we just had moments of just flat play," Greer said. "I think we started out pretty consistent and we just kind of lost our confidence throughout some of the sets.”

Laney Wilson attempting to go for the kill (Nico Battiata photo/AZPreps365)

Stein, who led Sunnyslope in attacks and kills, said the Vikings will bounce back,

“I feel like we can improve on the, overall, coming back from a big dip," she said. "In the scoring, if we’re down by a lot, we usually tend to not push through and overcome that, we get in our heads. We’re a really talented group, so I feel like if we push through and come together, we will do some great things.”

With this win, Corona Del Sol sits at a 21-3 record and most likely a top-three spot in the Arizona girl's volleyball rankings. The Aztecs look on to their next game against region rival, Desert Vista, which sits currently at a 13-13 record.

On the other hand, Sunnyslope falls to a still very impressive 14-3 record. The Vikings take on region rival Millenium in their next game, where they look to bounce back to their normal winning play.