LEHI — The Mountain View Bruins and the Lehi Pioneers took to the volleyball court Tuesday night with a bid for first place in Region 7 on the line.

The Pioneers came into the match with a 6-1 region record, while the Bruins entered with a 5-2 mark. With a victory, Lehi would have clutched a solid lock on the region title, but with a loss, everything was up in the air.

And neither team was about to give up its hopes for the region lead without a fight. Both teams put up a scrappy battle with intense defense showing the way, but in the end it was the Bruins who came away with the 23-25, 26-24, 22-25, 25-17, 15-9 victory that left the two schools tied for first place in Region 7 with identical 6-2 records.

The first time the two teams met it was the Pioneers that sneaked away with a five game victory.

"We just cleaned up a few errors, and we're serving better. It was definitely exciting," said Mountain View coach Andrew Young.

The two teams battled back and forth with neither team taking more than a four-point lead in either of the first two games, eventually splitting them after fighting through 12 ties in the first and 13 ties in the second. Neither team could grab hold of the momentum for more than a few points.

And most of the reason for that was the scrappy defense on both sides.

"We've been focusing on moving and being more intense and focused all of the time. We've been working the last few weeks on two-on-two warmups, making the girls move a lot more. When these girls work together, great things happen," said Young. The Bruins finished the match with 91 digs, proving just how tough the defense was. And it wasn't one-sided.

And the Bruins' serving was not too shabby either as the team finished with 12 aces and 11 errors, but the Lehi service game was shaky from beginning to end; though the Pioneers were able to come up with 11 aces of their own, they balanced that with 22 errors, which gave them grief all match long.

Chelsey Schofield led all players with 21 kills, but she wasn't all about offense as she also came up with 36 digs and four aces. Rachel Steele added 14 kills and 10 digs. Setter Heather Glassford had 35 assists, 13 digs and three aces. Haley Hawkes added 11 digs, four blocks, five kills and three aces in an all-around effort. Sheri Millard finished with nine kills and 10 digs for the Bruins in a balanced effort.

The Lehi Pioneers were led by Miranda Parkinson, who finished with 11 kills and six service aces. Mikayla Dunford added 11 kills of her own, and Breelle Bailey added 10 for Lehi. Brooke Izatt finished with eight kills, and Katy Ford had six as the Pioneers also put up a balanced attack in a match worthy of those deep in the state tournament

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