Volleyball Game Preview: Sunnyslope Vikings vs. Ironwood Eagles

Sunnyslope has gone a perfect 9-0 against Ironwood recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Vikings will challenge the Eagles at 9:00 a.m. Sunnyslope will be strutting in after a victory while Ironwood will be coming in after a loss.

Sunnyslope is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Arizona's top teams: Desert Vista, who was ranked 22nd at the time (Sunnyslope was ranked tenth). The Vikings came out on top against the Thunder by a score of 3-1 last Thursday. The Vikings haven't had any issues with the Thunder recently, as the game was their sixth consecutive win against them.

The victory didn't come easy: Desert Vista scored at least 21 points in every set. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-22, 23-25, 25-23, 25-21.

Lilli Schmitt

Assists

10/02/25 @ Desert Vista	35
10/01/25 vs Millennium	6
09/26/25 vs Orangewood Christian	16
09/26/25 vs Notre Dame Prep	26
09/24/25 @ Corona del Sol	18
+ 2 more games

Lilli Schmitt and Emma Easton were among the main playmakers for Sunnyslope as the former had 35 assists and 14 digs and the latter had 24 digs and four assists. That's the most assists Schmitt has posted over her last seven contests. The team also got some help courtesy of Maebelle Perkins, who had 15 digs.

Meanwhile, Ironwood came up short against Centennial on Thursday and fell 3-1. The Eagles haven't had much luck with the Coyotes recently, as the team has come up short the last five times they've met.

Sunnyslope's win was their first in the region, bumping their region record up to 1-2 and their overall record up to 16-7. As for Ironwood, their defeat dropped their record down to 11-8.

Sunnyslope skirted past Ironwood 2-1 in their previous meeting back in September. Do the Vikings have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Eagles turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.