Getting some tough matches last weekend in the Westwood Tournament of Champions Invitational and a couple earlier regular-season matches paid off Tuesday night for Mesa Mountain View.

The Toros rallied from eight points down in the fourth set Tuesday to post a match-closing victory and knock off Brown Road rival Red Mountain, 3-1, in a Division I volleyball contest at Red Mountain High School. It was the first power-point match loss of the season for Red Mountain, which dropped to 4-1.

"You never want to go to that deciding game on the other team's home court," Mountain View coach Stacie DeWitt said. "That can give them a big advantage. The key for us is we didn't get rattled. That's becoming characteristic of us."

Mountain View, which improved to 2-2 in power-point matches, got 20 kills from senior MacKenzie Skousen and 17 more from senior Milani Pickering. Better defense, especially in the third and fourth sets, aided the Toros in the win. A lot of that came from senior libero Morgan Carman (20 digs) Scores of the match were 25-12, 20-25, 25-20 and 25-21.

With Mountain View holding a 2-1 lead, Red Mountain appeared as if he had regrouped like it had done in Game 2. An 11-3 advantage and two seven-point leads (12-5 and 17-10) in the fourth set had Mountain View looking to reverse the momentum. The Toros called their final time out at 17-10. That's when they began their comeback.

A kill by Skousen, an ace from Stephany Purdue and a couple hitting errors by Red Mountain pulled the Toros within 17-14. Kills by Brooke Bryson, Carman and Kami Johnson highlighted another run that pulled Mountain View even at 19. A combination of kills (two by Pickering and a trio of Red Mountain errors (hitting and net violation) sent the Mountain Lions home a game earlier than they'd hoped.

"We have a balanced team, it's hard to key on just one," DeWitt said. "We made some defensive adjustments and our libero (Carman) did a nice job. We're confident enough now that it's not uncomfortable for us when we're behind."

Red Mountain as usual was led by senior hitter Heather Leavitt and junior middle Emily Franklin. Leavitt had 20 kills (unoffiicially) and Franklin 14 kills. Early in the match most of Leavitt's attacks weren't returned. Mountain View defended the powerful-swinging standout much better late in the pivotal fourth game. Leavitt had three kills and teamed up with Kiah Farr on a block in a brief stretch that helped build an 11-3 lead in the early part of Game 4.

Red Mountain is back in action Wednesday at home against Desert Ridge. Mountain View gets a second shot at Gilbert at Gilbert on Wednesday. Gilbert and Corona del Sol are the Toros' power-point losses.