The Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions know what they have ahead of them. With perennial power Xavier looming Thursday in a Desert Valley Region showdown the Mountain Lions wasted little time sweeping one of their last non-region matches of the regular season The visiting squad from Cesar Chavez fought gamely but had no answers for the Mountain Lions (5-3), who rattled off their fourth straight match win. As much as Cesar Chavez coach Benadette Campas may have championed the cause of defense there was no stopping the arsenal of attackers setter Bree Homsey had to choose from. "I thought our serve receive was pretty good tonight," Homsey said. "I was getting a lot of good passes so I could go where ever I wanted to." Whether it was Sam Schofield and Katie Peterson in the middle or McKenzie Jensen and freshman Chelsey Schofield on the outside Cesar Chavez had trouble matching the firepower as middle Jasmine Box was largely their only consistent weapon. In game one the Mountain Lions jumped to a 6-0 lead. Cesar Chavez would pull within two however Homsey would then serve her team to five straight points with an array of challenging serves, a trend that would continue throughout the evening. "I've been working on my jump serve a lot in practice and tonight seemed a good time to test it out," she said. Game one would finish without the Pegasus ever getting closer than four points in a 25-15 win that was punctuated with a well directed touch kill by Peterson who spotted the hole in the defense. In the second game Cesar Chavez started strong battling Mountain Ridge to a stand still through the first 16 points, but Mountain Ridge pulled away with 10 of the next 12 points on their way to a 25-13 win. The elder Schofield, the team's captain, said the team's effort has been consistent throughout the season. "I thought we kept it pretty high even though we were playing a team that didn't have such a good record (3-6)," she said. "I try to keep people up if they're not into the game. Katie does a good job of getting everybody going too." Game three was more of the same. Cesar Chavez was scrappy enough to be competitive, tying the deciding game for the last time at 15, but then could do nothing to stop the surge by Mountain Ridge. Inspired by Queen's We will we will rock you, which played prior to the final game the Mountain Lions rocked their way to victory by scoring the game's final 10 points with Homsey serving her team to victory. Included in the final 10 points were five Homsey aces. Peterson finished the match with a kill on match point. Devenney was happy with his teams effort, but knows bigger challenges lay ahead. "We're streaky," he said. "When we play well, we're very confident and very tough to beat, but we've got to learn how to shake off the times when we aren't playing well quicker," he said. "I see progress. We're definitely playing more consistently." As of Wednesday night's power ratings, a combination a team's record with its strength of schedule, that are used to seed the state tournament at the end of the year, the Mountain Lions stood No. 10 as they prepared to face No. 8 Xavier (7-1). Devenney's club lost to the Gators in a tournament earlier this year in two close games. "With Xavier they just have that history of success where they come out on the court and even if they're down they know they can comeback and win against any team," Devenney said. "We were at 20-20 in both games with them and then they pulled away. I think we have to know we can beat them." In other Northwest Valley action this week Deer Valley remained undefeated, moving to 6-0 on the season and 2-0 in Northwest Region action with a 3-1 win over Goldwater. In a battle of two Desert West Region teams Tuesday night Centennial swept Sunrise Mountain to improve to 2-0 in region play and 4-3 overall. The Mustangs, who had earned an emotional region opening win over defending champion Ironwood (5-2) Tuesday, fell to 1-1. On Thursday Ironwood and Centennial square off for the first time this season with the Coyotes looking to get to 3-0 in region play when they travel to Ironwood. At least when it comes to the power rating the 4A West Valley is the place to be. In addition to 4A Div-I defending state champion Cactus, which is undefeated at 10-0, Millennium (6-4) is No. 2, Peoria (7-2) is No. 5, while Agua Fria (4-6) is No. 9. The Cobras last win came Tuesday at Copper Canyon, a 3-0 Cactus win.

Outlook: Dobson gave up fewer points in its 2006 opener (14) than it did in any game on its 2005 slate.

Outlook: Last week’s loss to Buena could come back to haunt Highland at season’s end. The Hawks blew a 17-0 lead, which playoff-caliber teams can’t afford to do.

Address: 3921 W. Baseline Road, Laveen; Records: Basha 4-2; Cesar Chavez 4-2; Gametime: 7:00 p.m.