Emery Volleyball

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports Writer

The Emery High volleyball team split games last week as they defeated South Sevier 3-1 on Tuesday night in Monroe and then lost at San Juan 3-0. With the two games in the books, Emery has a 2-1 region record and will face Grand at Moab this week. San Juan leads the region at 3-0 while Grand and South Sevier are both 1-1. A win this week would keep the Emery team in solid contention for the region title.
At San Juan, Emery fell 25-15, 25-23 and 25-21. Emery was never in the first set as they scored a point off of a serve only one time. Trailing 17-9, Emery scored the next four points with Sidnee Conder serving to narrow the gap to 17-13 but the team was then outscored 8-2 to close out the set.
In the second set, Emery led at 11-9 and 13-10 only to see the lead disappear at 17-16. Emery fought the rest of the way but could never regain the lead. In the third set, San Juan grabbed the lead and stayed just ahead of Emery the rest of the way to secure the win.
At Monroe, South Sevier started hot by winning the first set 25-14 as the game went only through a single rotation. Emery actually led 5-3 and 7-6 before the Rams dominated the end of the set.
Emery then played some of their best ball of the season as they blasted the Rams 25-12 and 25-14 and then held onto win the fourth set 26-24.
Emery was absolutely dominating in sets two and three as everything they did was almost perfect. They had great kill shots, great digs, played the net well and served well as they thoroughly dominated the host team.
The Spartans would be a force in volleyball if they could harness their play in these two sets and duplicate it during every match.
In the fourth set, the two teams battled evenly up to 11-11.
South Sevier then scored the next five points to lead 16-11 and Emery fans were just a little nervous. Emery retook the lead at 19-16 with Bayler Griffin serving. The six straight Emery points were the most of the set and came at a good time to get the Spartans ready to snatch a win. The score was tied at 23-23 and 24-24 before Emery scored the final two points and left with the win.