Mountain View swept district rival Marana 3-0 (25-19, 26-24, 25-15) Wednesday night to improve to 6-5 overall and 1-3 in regular season matches. The win came one day after taking power-program Salpointe to five sets at home before dropping the fifth set 15-8.

“We had some major losses to our team from last year but I think we will still have a great season,” junior hitter Ashlee Sappington said. “We did really well against Salpointe and I felt pretty good. I’ve moved from the middle to the outside this year.”

Sappington appears to be the main weapon this year with the move to the outside and she led the Mountain Lions with nine kills including four in the final moments of the third set to put Marana away.  Senior Taylor Shiflet added seven more while senior setter Kailey Schumate had 16 assists. Kaitlin Schmich had 12 digs for Mountain View.

Marana (1-1) built an 18-12 lead in the second set but a series unforced errors helped Mountain View tie the set up at 23-23. Marana took a 24-23 lead but Mountain View scored three straight points for the 26-24 win.

The second set was indicative on the learning curve first-year coach Jenifer Ball has seen with her team.

“They have shown a lot of growth this year and there is a lot of newness to this team,” Ball explained. “I am really proud how each of them have responded to challenges and they are receptive to working hard and learning.”

No official stats were available for Marana.

Marana is scheduled to take part in the Flowing Wells Invitational coming up this Friday and Saturday while Mountain View will take a short break before hosting Desert View next Tuesday, Sept. 13.  The Mountain Lions are led by first-year coach Sara Lippitt.