APEX - For the last four years, Green Hope senior Kaitlin Quinn had been wanting to put away Apex. On Tuesday night, her tip in the fifth set did just that -- and ended two long-standing winning streaks in the process.

After dropping the first two sets, Green Hope rallied to win the last three in succession to snap the defending 4-A champions' 31-game winning streak, a run that dates back to the 2009 playoffs. The Falcons' won 21-25, 22-25, 25-20, 25-23, 15-11, becoming the first conference opponent to defeat Apex since 2008 -- a streak that extended 48 games.

But perhaps the streak the Green Hope seniors cared about the most was the one they had dealt with the most -- the Falcons had not defeated Apex in four years.

Falcons coach Karl Redelfs knew his team was champing at the bit to play Tuesday's match, so he didn't fight their excitement.

"I didn't tell them to calm down. I wanted that energy. I wanted them to harness that in the game," Redelfs said. "Our front row did a great job attacking the ball every single time. Almost all of our points were from hits -- no tips or dinks or anything. We brought that energy."

But what his Falcons, ranked third in the N&O volleyball rankings, had to fight and had trouble containing was No. 1 Apex's Megan Gravley.

The senior outside hitter and Elon recruit blistered Green Hope for most of the night. She ended with 31 kills, most of them ending with a a row of Apex students yelling "Boom!" as a perfect exclamation to her thunderous hits.

"She's a great hitter. She was killing us," Redelfs said. "I was like, 'we've got to tire her out.' I don't know if she was tired, but I noticed a drop in what she was doing to us and that sparked us. It was like 'hey, it's our turn now.'"

The match seemed destined to reach five games after the first set, which had 14 ties by the time the score was 17-17. Each of the first two games came to a close on a Gravley kill.

In the latter games, it was Green Hope's upperclassmen who stepped to the forefront.

The Falcons (7-0) ended the fourth game with Quinn, a Winthrop recruit, setting up three straight kills by Christina Vucich, a Duke recruit. The two combined for 10 kills over the final two games, with Vucich adding three aces.

Vucich's team-high 17 kills helped spark Green Hope's comeback. But it was her and Quinn's veteran leadership that prevented the team from worrying once falling behind 0-2 in the match.

"We remembered last year, at our home, we played Apex and we won the first two and they won the next three," Vucich said. "It was just reversed this time."

The two teams will meet again on Sep. 29. The Cougars have one more streak to keep intact -- three straight conference championships. Apex (4-1), which starts two freshmen and one sophomore, has been pleasantly surprised with how well its team has rebounded after losing almost its entire roster from a year ago.

"We didn't come out with a 'W,' but we're young," O'Connell said. "I expected us to be rebuilding, but I wouldn't even call it rebuilding I think we're just reloading. My two freshmen starters and my sophomore (starter) have never experienced this level of play. And we're only going to get better."

Green Hope junior Madison Brown added 13 kills. Apex senior Lexi Ament finished with 12.