Thunder beat SC, have clear shot at Region 9 title

Desert Hills vs. Snow Canyon, Volleyball, St. George, UT, Oct. 10, 2017, | File photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – Two Region 9 volleyball matches had playoff implications Tuesday night. The third saw a visiting Cedar looking for the upset against Dixie. Below, find match summaries and playoff implications for each team:

Desert Hills 3, Snow Canyon 1

When the Lady Warriors lost earlier this year on their home court to Desert Hills after having three match points in the fourth set, everyone knew that Snow Canyon was going to come out swinging in the rematch. But after the Thunder lost the first set, they rebounded to take the following three 16-25, 25-17, 25-9, 25-17.

“After Snow Canyon beat us in the first set I told the girls to give their best efforts and to own it,” said Desert Hills head coach Sharon Christensen.

SC coach Ryan Rarick said his team couldn’t sustain the hot start.

Desert Hills vs. Snow Canyon, Volleyball, St. George, UT, Oct. 10, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

“We’re disappointed that we were not able to sustain our level of play from the first set through the rest of the night,” he said. “We started in a great rhythm in the first set, but we fell out of that rhythm when our serve-receive broke down. A lot of credit goes to Desert Hills, they overcame their first set errors and applied a lot of pressure on us.”

Individually for the Thunder, Halle Sonju led the team with six service aces. Madi Clark had 21 kills. Andie Sonju and Saselah Goulding had 19 and 18 assists, respectively. Recording double-digit digs were Halle Sonju (20), Clark (19), Allie Beck (16), Kylee Christensen (15) and Goulding (11).

Snow Canyon’s Hallie Remund (24), Desert Hills vs. Snow Canyon, Volleyball, St. George, UT, Oct. 10, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

For the Lady Warriors, Sammi Johnston led the team with seven kills and 11 digs. Addie Tauanuu had 13 assists. Lizzy Rowland led the team with three service aces. Sophie Robinson led the team with six blocks. Hallie Remund and Rowland had five blocks apiece.

The Lady Thunder move to 15-10 overall and 9-1, atop Region 9. Desert Hills will host Canyon View next week. Snow Canyon falls to 8-3 in region and 15-13 overall. The Lady Warriors will host Dixie on Tuesday night.

Playoff Picture: With the win, the Lady Thunder are in the driver’s seat for the region’s No. 1-seed. Their final two matches next week are hosting Canyon View and traveling to Hurricane, while the current Nos. 2 and 3 teams still have to play each other. Snow Canyon drops to No. 3 with the loss. If they beat Dixie next Tuesday, they will finish with the No. 2-seed in the state tournament. If not, they are safely at No. 3.

Pine View 3, Canyon View 0

The Lady Panthers faced a battle in the first set, but had little trouble in the last two as they swept visiting Canyon View 25-22, 25-9, 25-14.

“We need to close out our season with more focus,” said Canyon View head coach Monica Jensen. “We have two more matches.

Individually for the Lady Panthers, Saraven Allen and Amelia Goebel led the team with nine and seven kills, respectively. Celeste Fiame led the team with 26 assists and three service aces. Emily Lantor led the team with nine digs. Fiame and Allen each had eight digs. For Canyon View, Malia Vasi had three kills. Lorien Colbert had five assists and Kaylee Hopkins led the team with 10 digs.

Pine View leap-frogs the Lady Falcons in the region standings at 5-6. The Lady Panthers are 19-11 overall and have a bye on Tuesday before closing out the season with a home date against Cedar. Canyon View falls to 4-6 in region and 10-11 overall. They will travel to Desert Hills next Tuesday.

Playoff Picture: This match likely determined who took the final region seed. With Pine View’s sweep of the Lady Falcons it will be awful difficult for Canyon View to return to state this year. The Lady Panthers have only Cedar remaining. Canyon View plays the top two teams, at Desert Hills and hosting Dixie. The Lady Falcons would have to win both matches and hope that Pine View loses its final match to make the playoffs.

Dixie 3, Cedar 0

The Lady Flyers swept visiting Cedar 25-14, 25-22, 26-24, but the going got tougher with each successive set.

In the first two sets, Dixie was able to get significant runs to give them substantial leads and cruise to victory. In the third set, it was the Reds that got the big run early. With the score tied at 11-11, Cedar went on a 5-1 run to force Dixie head coach Stacy Leavitt to call a timeout. She used up her second one a short time later at 19-13.

“Coach told us we needed to communicate better on our passing,” said Ella Burrows. “She also told us to end aggressive. Not to play it safe.”

Great team play from setter Brooklyn Wright with her attackers Brynn Eardley, Shawnee Jones and Lauren Beatty paid dividends down the stretch. Burrows also scored on blocks and kills from the middle.

“Brooklyn has played so well this year,” said Burrows. “She knows exactly where to put it for the middles and outside attackers. She definitely makes us look good.”

An Eardley kill pulled the Flyers to 22-19 before Cedar head coach Nicole Anglin called timeout.

“I told the girls not to feel pressure,” Anglin said. “Play loose and close out the set.”

Dixie was able to tie the match at 22 before Cedar got a side out. A service ace from Dream Weaver gave the Lady Reds two match points. But Dixie got the side out, then scored three straight points on Wright’s service.

“We got great serving from Brooklyn (Wright) and Cara Bair tonight,” Leavitt said. “We used this last weekend’s tournament to practice tough serves. Cara served very well. She has accurate placement and speed on her serves.”

Individually for the Lady Flyers, Brynn Eardley had 11 kills and 12 digs. Shawnee Jones had eight kills. Halle Anderson had 10 digs. Cara Bair had eight digs and three service aces. Lauren Beatty had eight kills. Brooklyn Wright had 35 assists.

For the Reds, Dream and Japrix Weaver had five kills apiece. Denim Henkel had eight assists. Dream Weaver and Henkel had three service aces apiece. Shaun Bauman had six digs.

Dixie slides into second in region at 8-2 and 18-6 overall. The Lady Flyers will host Snow Canyon on Tuesday. Cedar falls to 2-8 in region play and 8-12 overall. The Lady Reds will host Hurricane next Tuesday.

Playoff Picture: The Lady Flyers were hoping for a Snow Canyon win tonight against Desert Hills. That would have placed the three teams in a first place tie. Now they have to win against Snow Canyon to stay at No. 2. Their last match is a trip to Canyon View. Cedar has been eliminated from the playoffs.

Hurricane, which had a bye Tuesday night, has also been eliminated from the playoffs.

REGION 9 VOLLEYBALL STANDINGS
1. Desert Hills 9-1 (15-10)
2. Dixie 8-2 (18-6)
3. Snow Canyon 8-3 (15-13)
4. Pine View 5-6 (19-11)
5. Canyon View 4-6 (10-11)
6. Cedar 2-8 (8-12)
7. Hurricane 0-10 (4-14)

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Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.

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