Corona del Sol's girls volleyball team has endured tough times of late when it comes to defeating Hamilton, but the Aztecs snared one Saturday afternoon in its second meeting this season with the Huskies.

With a full complement of players available and Hamilton suffering more injury woes at setter, Corona del Sol managed to pluck a 25-20, 22-25, 16-14 victory and the title of the Tournament of Champions Invite at Westwood High. The win was only the second in 14 matches for Corona against Hamilton dating back to 2011. The other came last year in a tournament at Gilbert High that doesn't crown a champion.

Corona, which was 9-0 in the tournament and lost only two sets, came back from a 5-point deficit to win the first set. Hamilton, 8-1 in the tournament and 14-1 overall, led from start to finish in the second and opened the decisive set with a 5-0 lead. A Corona timeout in the third stemmed the tide.

"We were calm," Corona coach Ben Maxfield said. "We were fine. I  told them to get a pass, and we'd get going."

A few points later the match was tied at 6 and neither team trailed by two again until Corona closed out the match on a kill by Lauren Forte and a Hamilton hitting error.

Corona (15-1) benefitted having junior outside hitter Brooke Nuneviller back in its lineup. Nuneviller delivered 12 kills and along with senior middle Forte (10 kills, four blocks) and Erica Ronda (8 kills) kept Hamilton hopping on defense. Setter Abby Meyer (20 assists, 11 digs) and setter-libero Madi Reum (14 digs and 11 assists) were solid throughout the match. 

Nuneviller returned to the lineup earlier this week from a stint playing with the US. Youth National Team in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Nuneviller was away when the teams met on Sept. 6 at Hamilton and the Aztecs were on the short end of 3-0 loss. Hamilton's starting setter -- Sydney Lostumo--  was injured earlier that day and did not play. Lostumo is still sidelined and been backed up ably by junior Shannon Ryan.

Saturday it was Ryan who exited about midway through the second set of the title match with a foot/ankle injury. Ryan was replaced by Desirae Queotone, brought up from the junior varsity as insurance for Ryan. Queotone played well in her set-and-half of action, but wasn't totally prepared for the siutation.

"She did a nice job, but we were running a three-middle attack and it's not something you pick up on right away," Hamilton coach Sharon Vanis said. "It was a tough situation to be in."

Hamilton was led by senior middle Preslie Anderson with 10 kills, seven digs and two blocks. Anderson is patient and doesn't always pound her way to points. She's adept at seeing the court and mixing up her attacks. Teammate Darian Clark was next with nine kills and eight digs. Ryan had 24 assists before leaving.

TOC ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Twelve players were selected to the all-tournament team, led by Corona del Sol's Nuneviller and Forte and Hamiton's Anderson and Clark. The others selected: Basha's Kiana Gonsalves, Desert Vista's Kalen Owes, Mountain Pointe's Chapin Gray and Gabby Leo, Centennial's Kara Spicer, Reagan Leonard and Dani Wiley and Millennium's Jessica Vastine.