If Ironwood Ridge was riding high fresh off their 3-0 takedown of Sahuaro last Wednesday, their most recent game may have dampened their spirits a bit. The Ironwood Ridge Nighthawks took a 3-1 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Mica Mountain Thunderbolts on Thursday. The Nighthawks were given a dose of their own medicine in this game as the Thunderbolts apparently hadn't forgotten their defeat the last time these teams played two weeks ago.
While Ironwood Ridge had to settle for second, they sure made a game of it, scoring at least 18 points in every set they played. The final score came out to 25-23, 25-18, 24-26, 25-22.
Despite the loss, Ironwood Ridge saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Madeline Flowers had seven digs and six aces. Those six aces gave Flowers a new career-high.
Flowers wasn't the only good server: Ironwood Ridge was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 11 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least six aces in three consecutive games.
Mica Mountain can attribute much of their success to Jayden Nugent, who had 13 digs.
Ironwood Ridge's defeat dropped their record down to 15-18. As for Mica Mountain, they pushed their record up to 22-10 with the victory, which was their fourth straight on the road.
Ironwood Ridge didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next matchup, a 3-0 win against Rincon/University on the 29th. As for Mica Mountain, they also wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next match, a 3-1 victory against Salpointe Catholic on the 28th.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
