It is hard to imagine when teams play 40 matches in the same conference that they did not meet at least once during the season.

That was the case with perennial 5A-I contender Desert Vista and on-coming Desert Ridge Thursday night in the state girls volleyball quarterfinals.

Desert Vista wasn't a region champ, but paid its dues in the Fiesta Region with the likes of state tournament qualifiers Xavier, Hamilton and Red Mountain. That experience and an adjustment midway through the match helped in rallying from two games down as the No. 4 seeded Thunder recorded a 24-26, 19-25, 25-12, 25-18, 15-12 win over the No. 12 Jaguars at Desert Vista High.

Desert Vista (29-13) advances to face two-time defending state champ Xavier in Saturday's 6 p.m. semifinal at North Canyon High School. Desert Ridge, which eliminated No. 5 seed Mountain Ridge (a team the Jaguars lost to to open the season in August), finished 2010 with a 27-11 record.

Desert Ridge put Desert Vista to the test by winning the first two games and seemingly had the momentum to KO the Thunder. Adjusting its lineup in game 3 by moving senior standout McKella Williams to the right side for blocking, got the Thunder in gear.

"We had to get something going in the third game," Desert Vista coach Molly West said. "Once we made that adjustment, things went better. We got a lot of contributions to come back and win this one."

Desert Vista had three players record 20 kills - Williams, sophomore middle Brooke Honeycutt and junior Anniiya Robinson. Defensively Sydney Schumacher had 35 digs, libero Renae Sneigowski had 29 and Williams night was completed with 16 digs.

Desert Ridge coach Randi Eaton was frustrated his team didn't pull off a second straight  upset,, but still had plenty of praise for his team. 

"These girls accomplished a lot," Eaton said. "I'm very proud of them. They worked their butts off, and just kept getting better."

The Jaguars were hurt by the loss in the middle of the match of middle Lexi Crist, who has been hampered off and on the last few weeks with an ankle injury.  Crist missed most of the third game and all of the final two.
 

"That hurt," Eaton said. "They frustrated us. They tipped us to death."

Desert Ridge was led by senior outside Talia Jones with 17 kills.

"She is a great player, very tough to defende," West said. "We hadn't seen them in a match, but were at tournaments they were at. She's impressive."

Desert Vista met Xavier twice during the regular season, losing 3-0 and 3-1. The Thunder will try to stop the Gators bid at a 5A-I three-peat when they meet again Saturday.