SCARBOROUGH — In an early-season matchup between the top two Class A volleyball teams, second-ranked Scarborough edged top-ranked Falmouth in five sets Tuesday night at Scarborough High.

“We knew that Falmouth was a strong team and one versus two doesn’t mean that much during this part of the year,” said Scaborough Coach Jon Roberts.

Lydia Farmer, left, and Caroline DeNoia of Falmouth block a scoring bid by Haley Nelson of Scarborough during Scarborough’s victory Tuesday night. John Ewing/Staff Photographer

“But we talked about it and said ‘hey, they’re doing really well and we’re doing really well.’ Both teams are going to be fired up and ready to play.”

With the score 12-12 in the final game, where the first team to 15 points wins the match, Kacey Forester gave Scarborough (5-1) the serve after a kill to put the Red Storm up 13-12. Chloe Grey came through with an ace on her serve to put Scarborough on the verge of victory.

Falmouth scored the next point but after Scarborough returned the serve, Falmouth (4-2) was unable to get the ball over the net to end it.

“We had a couple of girls who were off their game, and for most of the season we’ve had everyone on their game for every point, every play,” said Falmouth Coach Molly Northway. “This is the first time we’ve had to battle back and that was a challenge.”

Emily Hanson, perhaps Scarborough’s most important player, seems to dig everything and although she doesn’t rack up assists, she puts teammates in terrific position to get assists.

“(Hanson) stepped up big time in Game 4 and Game 5,” said Roberts. “She made a couple big reads on their big hitter – Lydia Farmer is a great hitter – she stepped right in and made great digs. I know as a hitter, that can get in your head if someone is digging it and that gets us pumped up.”

The difficult part about doing the dirty work is you rarely receive credit from those not on the team. But it’s clear that Hanson’s presence is integral to the Red Storm’s success.

“It’s huge to have a senior that’s willing to put herself out there and say ‘yup, I’ll carry the team where I need to,’ ” said Roberts.

Hanson worked hard through her first three years of high school and put in a lot of extra time in the offseason to earn this role.

“This year I got the chance to become libero, which was a huge honor (to me). I’ve always wanted to be Scarborough’s libero and it happened. So that’s awesome,” said Hanson.

Falmouth entered the fourth game with a 2-1 lead. The Yachtsmen scored the first point of the game but Scarborough responded with 10 unanswered points to take a 10-1 lead. It appeared the Red Storm would run away with the fourth game and force a fifth, but Falmouth would not concede.

“One thing we do at practice is we say that we’re never letting a ball drop on the court and they know that they’re going to run lines if they let a ball drop on the court. So that’s something we talk about. When we are down by points like that, we have to dig deep and not let anything drop,” said Northway.

Trailing 14-5, the Yachtsmen responded with an 8-0 run. Scarborough was able to maintain composure and close off the game with an 11-5 run to force the fifth game.

“One thing that Coach always says to us is to compete,” said Hanson. “Overall, (Roberts) says, ‘compete, work your hardest, work well as a team and don’t give up on each other.’ ”

Scarborough used its substitutions frequently, putting its depth on display.

“We talked about playing as a team versus individually. We talked about trusting each other. We have a deep bench and we needed it,” said Roberts.

“Scarborough was very strong with a deep bench,” said Northway.

For the Yachtsmen, Farmer led all players with 12 kills. Teammate Amanda Watson added a match-high 24 assists.

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