Gilbert Mesquite overcame a slow start to defeat Marana Mountain View in five sets (16-25, 25-21, 25-15, 24-26 and 15-6) Thursday night on the road. The 3-2 win mirrored the bumpy start the Wildcats (2-2) have experienced barely four matches into the season.

A five-set loss at home to Gilbert Highland was followed by a 3-0 loss at Mesa but a 3-1 win over Tucson Catalina Foothills at home helped set the Wildcats on a new path.

"It's certainly been a bumpy road so far," said Mesquite junior outside hitter Jordan Schumacher. "But I think we will have a great season now and will hopefully play for a state championship."

Schumacher has been part of the rebuilding project at Mesquite under third-year head coach Carlos Flys. The Wildcats experienced four losing seasons in a row (including a 2-21 record in 2010) before arrive Flys arrived.

Schumacher recorded a game-high 24 kills in the win over Mountain View but the Mountain Lions were able to open up with a 25-16 win in the first set. Mountain View senior captain Cheyenne Pitts finished out the set with two aces.

The two teams battled back and forth in the second set but the Wildcats went on a 7-3 run to break a late 18-18 tie to take the set 25-21.

Mesquite started to take advantage of some uneven play from the Mountain Lion back row midway through the second set. It's an issue that Mountain View head coach Krista Robinson attributed to youth and shifting positions due to some early season health issues.

Like Mesquite, Mountain View (1-3 in non invitational matches) started out on a  downside but some of that can be attributed to starting off on the road against Tucson Salpointe and Tucson Sahuaro.

It looked like Mesquite was going to run away with the match after a 25-15 win in the third set but Mountain View battled back for an epic 26-24 win in the fourth set thanks to the play of junior outside Jazzmyn Hughes and junior Kaitlin Schmich.

Hughes led Mountain View with nine kills and Schmich added six to go along with 17 digs.  Hughes is one of the standouts Robinson has called upon to shift positions for the good of the team.  That unselfish attitude is part of what defines the team according to Schmich.

"We are a very well rounded team," Schmich explained. "We have some seniors but we also have a lot of youth. We get a lot of energy from it."

Schmich lost her voice along the way. She says it's a usual occurrence, part of "leaving everything on the court."

But Mesquite proved too much and the Wildcats sprinted out to a 6-0 lead in the deciding fifth set before closing out the 15-6 win.

"To be honest, Mountain View had some scrappy players," Schumacher added. "We just have some powerful hitters and we worked hard tonight."

Junior Kiley Tonge added 22 kills for Mesquite, Payten Russo had 26 assists, Mattison Stewart collected 21 assists and Makena Smith had 22 digs.

Ashlee Sappington added six kills for Mountain View while Trasea Brown collected 27 assists. Mattea Reeb recorded 24 digs.

Mountain View will visit Mesa Red Mountain on Tuesday and Mesquite will host Gilbert Perry on the same night.