Phoenix Mountain Pointe was always down, but never out.

The Pride trailed by seven points in the first set and faced set point in the second, but was able to rally for a 3-0 victory over Mesa Westwood in a first-round match of the 5A-I state volleyball tournament Wednesday night at Mountain Pointe.

SLIDESHOW: 5A-I state volleyball tournament

The Pride won by scores of 25-21, 27-25, 25-23 and will travel to Gilbert for a quarterfinal match at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Mountain Pointe was trailing 17-10 in the first set when the Pride ran off 10 straight points on the serve of senior libero Alexa Cava.

“It’s more like a sense of urgency,” said Cava of her team’s comebacks. “We keep creeping up and creeping up. It gets really close and really intense and we turn it up right then.”

Mountain Pointe faced a deficit of as much as 22-16 and then 24-23, when the Pride scored four of the final five points in the second set.

In the third set, the Pride scored seven straight points for a 21-17 lead. Westwood held on for four set points before Mountain Pointe won the match.

“We did battle back, but we didn’t play our best match tonight,” said Mountain Pointe coach Fred Mann. “I felt like if we played like we practice, and we’ve been practicing real well, we’ll be in good shape. If we keep playing like we did tonight, we’ll be in trouble. We need to raise it up a level.”

The match marked the end of the head coaching career of Westwood’s Steve Crook, who led the Warriors to a state title during his 18-year tenure.

While he said he’s done with head coaching, Crook may return as an assistant coach.

“Their libero serving killed us,” said Crook. “We didn’t necessarily breakdown at the end of games other than our passing when (Cava) was serving. I was happy with the way we played. If we get a bounce here or a bounce there we’re in a fourth game and maybe a fifth, funny game.

“I was proud of how the kids played tonight.”