St. Mary’s girls’ volleyball was off and rolling when Karla Ramirez’s thundering first kill echoed throughout the gym. The senior captain had 17 kills to pace the Knights victory.  

St. Mary’s defeated Shadow Mountain 3-1 on Tuesday night at home.

The Knights started fast with multiple kills from Ramirez, and they induced two Shadow Mountain timeouts at 10-4 and 16-9 in the first set.

“They needed to start strong, and that was one of our goals for tonight," Shadow Mountain head coach Holly Pavoggi said.

The Matadors fought back, and a Janae Bibby kill made it 23-21 in favor of St. Mary’s, but the Knights won the set 25-22.

The second set was a back and forth battle, with the Knights winning it 25-22 as well.

Ramirez said she enjoys back and forth, high intensity matchups. “The competition helps us, it pushes us to be better, and we are better for it,” she said.

Shadow Mountain flipped the script in the third set and started strong. It climbed out to a 17-9 lead, and won it 25-15.

Pavoggi liked the way her team fought back in the third set. “That’s the way we normally play,” Pavoggi said.

The fourth set was all St. Mary’s, and the Knights dug out the majority of the Matadors hits, leading them to a 25-15 win.

The Knights are a team that prides itself on digging and head coach September Lopez uses it as a mantra for her team.

“The St. Mary’s mission statement is we may not be the strongest, but we are going to focus on defense,” Lopez said. “We are always leading in digs.”

After tonight’s victory, the Knights have 650 digs on the season.

“Postive energy was big for us tonight,” Ramirez said. “We were bringing it in the middle [to celebrate] in the first and second sets, and even though we got away from it in the third, we came back in the fourth set.”

Lopez applauded her team after a rough last week, losing to Estrella Foothills and Greenway in straight sets, 3-0. “After a rough last week, we are back to where we were before last week, and we did bounce back.”

In addition to Ramirez’s 17 kills, Leilani Clark had 13 kills. Najla Betts had 11 blocks, and Rylee Estrella handled 29 digs.

For Shadow Mountain, McKayla O’Toole and Katie Burns had 11 kills. Abby McLeran had 19 digs, and Riley Safcik secured 31 assists.

St. Marys (10-4) moves to 1-1 in section, and Shadow Mountain (11-7) likewise at 1-1.

Lopez talked winning key sections games in anticipation of two matchups with first place Greenway.

“It’s the same philosophy, we must win the games we are supposed to,” Lopez said. “With Greenway in our division, we know they are tough, so every other game in our section must be a win.”

St. Mary’s battles Tempe on Thursday at St Mary’s, and Shadow Mountain plays Thunderbird Thursday night at home.