St. Mary’s capitalized on the Rams miscues and swept Washington  25-7, 25-12, 25-9 on Tuesday night at St. Mary's.

It was an all-around dominating performance for the Knights, who have won three straight games and improved their record to 4-1 on the season.

Karla Ramirez dominated the net with 10 kills, while Leilani Clark added five kills. Rylee Estrella contributed with nine digs, and Gracie Brittain had 17 assists on the night.

St. Mary’s was only able to record 25 kills as a team, because of serving errors and numerous balls hit out of bounds by the Rams. 

The Knights started strong and pulled away in the first period, but started slow in the second period.

St. Mary’s head coach September Lopez said, “When we were down, we found a way to take it to the next level and push through, even though it was an ugly game.”

The Washington Rams dropped to 0-5 on their season, and are still looking to win their first set. Head Coach Shaundra Alexander-Stanley said it is a product of having a young team.

“This is a very young team, and their improvement on playing as a team got really good tonight,” Alexander-Stanley said. “I would like to see better back row passing and defensive digging because that is still our weakness right now.”

Lopez has preached that her team must beat the teams that they are supposed to beat, and she affirmed that they did that tonight. “We must continue to compete going into region, every single win is important,” Lopez said.

Junior opposite hitter Naija Betts of St. Mary’s said, “When everybody [on the team] cheers while giving 100 percent effort, we always play better as a team.”

The cheering is tangible when you walk into St. Mary’s gym, and is something that helps their team chemistry, chemistry that is built on staying tight as a team.

“We win together, and we lose together too,” Lopez said.

There is still room for improvement for the Knights, and it could be tempering their cohesiveness.   

“Actually, I think our chemistry is too well this year. When our leaders are down, everyone is down, and when our leaders are up, everyone is up,” Lopez said. “

Betts has a knack for blocking shots, recording six blocks in their previous game against Dysart.

On Wednesday, she did it with an all-around performance, recording four kills and two blocks, and was a presence in front of the net the whole night.   

“It means a lot to be on this team,” Betts said. “I love being a part of this team.”

The Knights have always had the one game at a time mentality, and Lopez said her focus is on Thursday’s game. “Right now, our focus is to get a win on Thursday, we will take the ugly wins, the good wins; we must win as many games as possible,” Lopez said.

The Knights look to improve to 5-1 on Thursday night at Cortez, and Washington looks for their first win at Tempe.