LEHI — After dropping the opening set against Mountain View, the Skyridge Falcons rallied to win three straight games to defeat the Bruins Tuesday night in Region 7 volleyball action. Skyridge, in its first year of existence, has only three seniors on its roster and before the game Marisa Cannon, Faith Crabb and Mikayla Upham were honored. In the final set, Crabb and Upham came up big to hold off a determined Bruin squad. Mountain View came out strong, winning the first set 25-18. But Skyridge responded to beat the Bruins in the second set by an identical score and then took the third set 25-20. This set up an action-packed fourth set that went back and forth before Skyridge took charge. With the scored tied 17-17, the Falcons won eight of the next 12 points to win the set 25-21 and secure the match. Mikayla Upham combined on a block to put the Falcons up 20-18 and then Crabb doubled up with Kennadee Christensen on another block to extend the lead to three points, 21-18. Mountain View then scored before Upham put down an explosive kill followed by a kill by Crabb to put Skyridge up on top 23-18. Mountain View called timeout and rallied for three points to make the score 23-21 before Crabb again put up a defensive wall. Then Brinley Watkins finished off the match for Skyridge with a kill. Upham had a match-high 25 kills while Christensen added 17. Crabb had six kills and six blocks. Sophomore setter Katie Standifird had 30 assists, 11 digs and four kills. Mountain View was led by an explosive game from Janet Kalaniuvalu who had 22 kills, including nine kills in Mountain View's first 13 points in the fourth set. Skyridge head coach Deanna Meyer felt that one of the keys of the match was the balanced attack the Falcons employed. "She's (Kalaniuvalu) pretty good," said Meyer. "She's going to get her points. Our six can beat that one big player because we can hit them on all sides. We can contain it by siding her out and putting her on the back row though she hits well from there, too." Meyer said that the slow start could be attributed to the Senior Night festivities. "Because it's Senior Night, there's a lot of emotion," Meyer said. “I felt like we needed to get into a rhythm. We’re so young, and we’ve just got to learn to go play our game. We’ve got to be fearless. Our theme this year is 'Falcon Fierce.' " Though Skyridge is in its first year of experience, Upham is quite cognizant of the importance in starting a strong tradition for the Falcon program. "It feels great (to get the win)," Upham related. "Hopefully they will remember us and that we played as a team. We're going to fight and go all out, nothing to lose." Crabb was also happy to get the win on Senior Night. "It was crazy," Crabb added. "We get to start the foundation to build upon and it's a great opportunity." With the win, Skyridge clinched a tie for second place with a 10-2 overall league mark. Mountain View fell into a tie for third with Timpview with 8-4 records as Orem defeated the Thunderbirds Thursday. Skyridge will visit Provo next Tuesday while Mountain View will host Corner Canyon, currently topping the region with a 11-1 mark. Brian Preece is a freelance prep sportswriter. He was also the head wrestling coach at Provo High School from 1994-2006. In 2006 Preece was named as the Utah Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. OREM — Skyridge beat Timpanogos Thursday night in prep volleyball to clinch a 4A state playoff berth. With the win, the Falcons mathematically assured a state tournament appearance in the school's first year of existence.
The match didn't start out well for Skyridge as the homestanding Timberwolves won the first set 25-20, but the Falcons rallied to win the next three 25-16, 25-21 and 25-11. "We didn't start out too well but we got better as the match progressed," said Skyridge head coach Deanna Meyer. "We need to improve our serving, but we had some nice digs." In the fourth set, Skyridge dominated the action, and that was in part due to cleaning up its game from the service line. In the third game, Skyridge had nine service errors but still prevailed, but once that was reduced to just two, the Falcons were dominant to take the fourth game and close out the match. Some other key aspects were the passing of libero Tylee Fuller, who passed an efficient 2.27 and also had 22 digs in the match. Defensive specialist Reagen Calton also added some quality defensive work and passing. Mikayla Upham had 12 kills and three aces to pace the offense. Brinley Watkins added nine kills. Katie Standifird had 36 assists and Cici Hauver had two service aces. With the win, Skyridge moves to 9-2 in Region 7 action and will play Mountain View in its home finale Tuesday, Oct. 18. Timpanogos falls to 1-10 in league play and will visit Provo, winless in league play, on Tuesday. Brian Preece is a freelance prep sportswriter. He was also the head wrestling coach at Provo High School from 1994 to 2006. In 2006, Preece was named as the Utah Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. PROVO — After dropping a heartbreaking 3-2 match with Corner Canyon Tuesday, the Thunderbirds turned the tables to defeat Skyridge Thursday night 25-23, 25-22, 19-25, 25-11.
Timpview head coach Kristen Bailey challenged her team after the Thunderbirds dropped the third set. "I asked them, 'Hey, are we going to have a repeat of our last match or are we going take it in four?" Bailey said. "We then came out and took the momentum back." Timpview was led by Selai Damuni and Jensyn Turner who had 16 and 12 kills respectively. Lani Neves and Lila Tela each had three aces. Tela also added 12 digs. The match featured some high-quality volleyball and rallies especially in the first two sets which came down to the wire but Timpview showed its composure to win. But Skyridge showed some mettle of its own in the third set trailing 18-16 and then rallying to score eight straight points led by the serving of Brinley Watkins. Timpview scored one more point before the Falcons put it away. The fourth set was all Timpview as Damuni and Turner led the attack and Skyridge couldn't muster a consistent attack. Skyridge head coach Deanna Meyer felt there were both good and bad aspects of her team's play. "I thought we played real well at the net, but we had too many service errors." The Falcons did have 15 service errors on the night but Mikayla Upham was good on the attack with 14 kills. With the win, Timpview moves to 5-3 in league play while Skyridge drops to 6-2. Notes: On Tuesday Skyridge defeated Orem in four sets. But the more important aspect of the night was the charitable cause to fight breast cancer. Fans made donations for each dig the two teams combined to have 75 digs. All told, nearly $1,500 was raised. Games start this Wednesday:
Skyridge 1 will be the Freshman Team (Sammy's Team) Skyridge 2 will be the Jr. Falcon Team (Sunny's Team) Skyridge earns first Region 7 win in prep volleyballBy Brian Preece
For the Deseret News OREM — After dropping a tough five-set match to Corner Canyon Tuesday, the Falcons responded with a three-game sweep against the Orem Tigers in prep volleyball Thursday night.Skyridge was in total control winning the match 25-19, 25-11, 25-17. It was exactly the type of rebound performance Falcon head coach Deanna Meyer was desiring. "I thought we did a much better job keeping up our intensity," said Meyer when comparing the Orem match with the Corner Canyon match. "In the Corner Canyon match, we played great the first two sets but then we lost our focus. But tonight we kept things at a higher level throughout and did not let our intensity drop." The Falcons had 27 kills, 45 digs and nine service aces in the match. Alice Ellsworth led the way with six kills for Skyridge. She also added two blocks and hit .667 for the match. Setter Kaitlyn Standifird had a stellar night as well with 22 assists, five digs and two aces. She also had 10 points from the service line. What excites Meyer is that Ellsworth and Standifird are just sophomores. In fact, in parts of the match the Falcons played four sophomores. One fun aspect of the match was the crowd. Orem had a large group of football players in attendance and they squared off with the Skyridge junior varsity and sophomore squads in a spirited cheer-off. Things got particularly boisterous during a long delay in the match due to a substitution issue. "The crowd was seriously insane," Meyer said. The Falcon head coach credited one of her sidelined varsity players for adding to the fun. "Our injured libero Kaitlyn Johnson basically told me she didn't want to take stats anymore as she needed to show the younger players how to make some noise," Meyer related. With the win, the Falcons moved to 8-2 overall and 1-1 in Region 7 action. Meanwhile, Orem dropped to 0-1 in league play and 1-4 overall. Skyridge will next host Timpview while Orem visits Alta. Both games will be Tuesday at 6 p.m. Brian Preece is a freelance prep sportswriter. Preece was also the head wrestling coach at Provo High School from 1994-2006 and in 2006 was named as the Utah Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. Hello Everyone!
Thank you for your patience. I was trying to secure two teams in a league but unfortunately the Timpview league folded and Alpine only allows two teams per school and we already have 9th grade team ready to go for that. ( I will let you know if that changes) It is my recommendation that you keep playing.... the clubs in the area will have fall play and practice get involved in that or your local city league. The following girls need to report to a practice Friday @ 3:45 in the Main gym. Ella Lopez - 8 Kaitlyn Rupp - 8 Allison Lamborn - 8 Ava Slaney - 8 Evie Mahe - 8 Emma Meyer - 7 Annie Taylor - 8 Courtney Wilson - 8 Kaitlyn Everett - 8 Alyssa Anderton - 7 Licia Echevarria - 7 Olivia Fredrick - 8 *Madilynn Ferguson - 8 *Madison Standiford - 6 *Practice players Cost to participate in this league is $150 it will include spandex and a Falcon T-shirt. League fee, Equipment fee etc. You will need to attend practices on Monday and Friday and games on Wednesday at American fork Practices will be at 4:00 If you cannot attend please don't accept a position on the team.
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