Campo Verde's girls volleyball team wants to be contender for the 5A state title this fall after a season feeling its oats with the 6A folks.

On Monday night  the Coyotes headed down that road challenging and taking down the previous year's champion.

After getting dominated in the first set for the most part, the Coyotes rebounded to score an 18-25, 25-18, 25-15, 25-20 victory over Notre Dame Prep at Campo Verde High School.

Campo Verde improved to 4-2 in power-ranking matches in the young season and its strong serving much of the night kept Notre Dame off balance. Notre Dame has six of its top nine players back from last season. They dropped to 2-3 for the year with the loss.

Sophomore outside hitter Kamaile Hiapo contributed 24 kills to pace Campo Verde and added eight digs. Another sophomore, outside Caitlin Dugan, was efficient with eight kills and 11 digs. Junior outside Sadie Udall checked in with seven kills and 10 digs. Senior setter Kanani Hiapo had 39 assists and nine digs.

"They served us very agrgressively," Notre Dame coach Sara Fox said. "We had trouble with that, and added a high error rate."

Notre Dame won the opening set with play that didn't resemble what took place the next three sets. The Saints got little resistance at the net early and knocked down points pretty consistently from junior outside-middle Lexi Johnson (team-high 18 kills,. 517 kill percentage), junior middle Nicole Shuhandler (seven kills) and junior Sophie Sydenham. That trio helped stretch a 12-8 lead to 22-12 and a routine triumph.

Campo Verde coach Vee Hiapo coaxed her team to play stronger at the net and it paid dividends the rest of the way with three successive victories.

"Our serving was good most of the time, but once our blocking came through it was much better for us," Hiapo said.

Campo Verde breezed in the second set to even the match and was definitely the better team the final two sets down the stretch, both of which were tight mid-set. Notre Dame trailed 14-13  in the third, but an 11-2 run made the set look lopsided. Four hitting or passing errors combined with two aces by Campo sealed the set.

The fourth set was the closest of the night with the teams tied at 16 for the final time. The first of four kills by Kamaile Hiapo put Campo Verde ahead to stay and started a 4-0 run -- the biggest lead of the set f(20-16) for either team at that point. Johnson had three kills late to pull Notre Dame withing 22-20. Kamaile Hiapo closed it out with back-to-back kills.

Sydenham, Sayler Butters and Aneliesa Cartledge led Notre Dame defensively with nine digs apiece.

Despite three losses in five matches, Fox isn't overly concerned as the season hits its thiird week.

"We still have some great players," Fox said. "We just have to put it together. I think we'll get there."