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Fiery Palo Verde knocks off Foothill

Palo Verde girls volleyball coach Phil Clarke stoically sat in his chair, occasionally barking out instructions to his varsity squad, as his bench players anxiously swayed back and forth during waning moments of their match against Foothill on Thursday.

Clarke was calm after the Panthers blew a first-set lead to the Falcons. And he was calm when they clinched match point after nearly two hours of back-and-forth volleyball at Foothill High School.

The Panthers squandered a big first-set lead, but rallied and won the next three sets to clinch a 25-27, 26-24, 25-20, 25-21 victory over the Falcons.

Palo Verde players rushed the court after the final point and gathered for a group celebration as the Falcons dejectedly huddled for a team breakdown.

“We started off really well, then gave up the lead,” Clarke said. “We figured it was going to be close. The momentum is a tricky thing. When you have it it’s great. If not, you can always get it back.”

The Panthers (6-4) juggled the momentum seemingly all night. They built an early 5-0 lead in the first set and were in prime position to build on it until Foothill strung together a few timely scoring runs for a first-set victory.

The Falcons (8-3) were poised to steal the second set, too, after climbing out of a 7-1 hole, but the Panthers battled back with a series of scrappy points to win the second set.

“We’re a super-fiery team,” Palo Verde captain Aaliah Largusa said. “When we play fiery, that’s when we play our best. It’s those scrappy plays that really get us through. It was always super important that we kept it going to get the next point.”

The Panthers capitalized on Falcons mistakes and found soft spots in their defense in the third and fourth sets to pull away and seal the victory.

“We have to take this as a lesson that we are beatable when we don’t follow our gameplan,” Foothill coach Krysta Ortiz said. “We have a very strong offense if we can get the passes where they need to go.”

Largusa and Carli Tanner each had eight kills to lead Palo Verde. Makaya Tramen had 32 digs, and Arien Fafard had 20 assists for the Panthers.

Whitley Brow led Foothill with 11 kills.

“We take a lot of pride in playing hard and our defense,” Clarke said. “We got … (some of) those points that could go either way.”

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