Two of Arizona's nationally ranked high school teams fended off worthy opponents this week to hold their spots in the ASICS Flo50 Rankings and get them one step closer to state playoffs.

Xavier vs. Perry: Remixed

Xavier College Prep, ranked No. 46, met bubble team Perry High School for the second time this season on Wednesday, October 19, clinching a needed 3-0 win against the Pumas.

Perry, having won the first meeting in September three sets to two, entered Wednesday's match with the upper hand. Xavier head coach Lamar-Renee Bryant wasn't taking any chances.

Leading by a solid margin in the first two sets, Xavier found itself in a familiar situation--up two sets with Perry moving in to close out the third. But Perry's efforts fell short, and Xavier avoided a repeat of its earlier contest with Perry, taking the match in three with final scores of 25-19, 25-13, 28-26.

"It was really important for us to close it out in three -- we didn't want them to get a run," Bryant said. "But it was an awesome match and we worked really hard and I'm really proud of the girls."

See the latest ASICS Flo50 Girls' High School Rankings.

The Xavier squad applied pressure in the form of serving, defense, and running the middle offense. Senior middle blocker Makena Patterson tallied 15 kills, while senior outside hitter Grace Morrison added 13. Sophomore setter Shannon Shields had 34 assists and contributed four of the nine team aces on the night, while libero Alyna Draper set the tone out of the back row with 20 serve receptions and 21 digs.

As Xavier heads into the postseason, Bryant emphasized the importance of focusing on things the team can control: serving tough and having strong serve-receive passing.

"The serve and pass game going into playoffs is probably one of the most important things and [siding out] with high efficiency," Bryant said. "We know we can score points when we're serving, so we're just working on our side-out game."

Corona Del Sol vs. Gilbert: Back-to-Back Wins

Across town, another big Arizona matchup was getting started when the Aztecs of No. 18 Corona del Sol met the Gilbert Tigers for two back-to-back matches on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Corona del Sol met Gilbert at home for its first match on Wednesday night and took the win in three sets (25-16, 29-27, 25-16), but the energy shifted courts when the Aztecs traveled to Gilbert to play in front of the Tigers' home crowd.

On Thursday, Gilbert came out for blood and took the first two sets 25-18 and 27-25. But the Aztecs regrouped and battled to take the match in five. The scores for the final three sets were 25-21, 25-22, 15-9.

"Our girls showed a tremendous amount of heart, fighting back from a pretty bad first set," Corona del Sol head coach Ben Maxfield said. "Even though we lost the second set, we battled back from a six-point deficit to nearly take it. The girls never gave up; [they] just took it one point at a time."

See the latest ASICS Flo50 Girls' High School Rankings.

Corona del Sol junior outside hitter Brooke Nuneviller led the charge in attacking with 18 kills and senior Erica Ronda was just behind her with 17 kills and 22 digs. Setting duo Madi Reum and Abby Meyer kept their hitters swinging with 23 and 27 assists, respectively. But it's defense that wins games, and the Aztecs of Corona del Sol kept 87 balls from hitting the ground with senior libero Camryn Tucker snagging 21 digs on the night.

The Aztecs meet Highland at home in their next scheduled match. As they finish out regular season play and head into playoffs, Maxfield is focused on a few things.

"We will continue to work on improving our serving and serve receive," he said. "We feel if we can pass well, we are a very tough team to defend. We look to have a positive ratio of serving aces to reception errors. Usually if we get it to 1.5, we win."