| Jenny Stinson of Canyon View faces off against Mont Harmon. |
For the 14th time in the past 15 years, the Canyon View Cougars have claimed a piece of the regular season volleyball title. Repeating this season as outright champions, the Cougars finished the season 5-1 after suffering an opening game loss to Helper.
Seeing most of the varsity action this season were Jenny Stinson, Ashley Alger, Michelle Oliver, Chelcee Christensen,Kristianne Grange and Gabrielle Guymon.
Jenny was the top hitter at the net and led the team in kills. Ashley was the top blocker. Michelle and Chelceewere the setters on the team.
The Cougars are coached by Bill Wright and Melanie Childs. Coach Wright talked about his team, “Our girls played well all season long, we should never have had the loss that we did.” Coach Wright lost several players to the high school and he commented, “Losing players to the high school is OK. I am for whatever is best for the player. It gives us an opportunity to play others that may not have seen as much time.”
Lane Hales and Terry Seely coached the San Rafael volleyball team this season. Coach Hales talked about his players; “We are really young this season with only three ninth graders on the team. We have had to work all season on learning the game.”
Those three ninth graders are middle blocker Tiffany Tuttle, setter Nikki Rogers and all-around player Kristen Weber. Brooke Jensen and Markette Tanner also started. Jessica Murray and Taylor Mann shared the final position.
Coach Hales went on, “I wasn’t sure I would be able to coach this season after the health problems. It has been really enjoyable this season. I came out healthy and I have a really great team to be with. They are fun, they give me no problems, and it has been great.”
| Brook Jensen sets for San Rafael. |
Junior High tournament
Carbon and Emery county’s junior high volleyball came to an end last week at Canyon View Junior High as the Cougars hosted the closing tournament. Mont Harmon came out of the loser bracket to knock-off the host team in two matches.
In the opening match of the day, Canyon View defeated Helper in five sets. Helper won the first set 25-22 and the third set 25-12 to grab the opening lead. Canyon View won game two 25-16 and then closed out the Rams 15-11 and 15-10. In the opening game, Mont Harmon defeated San Rafael in four games. San Rafael won the first game 25-23 and then Mont Harmon won 27-25, 15-12 and 15-13.
In the winners bracket, Canyon View defeated Mont Harmon in five games. Scores were 21-25, 25-16, 4-15, 16-14 and 15-12. In the losers bracket, Helper defeated San Rafael. San Rafael was now done despite having finished second in the regular season.
Mont Harmon then defeated Helper 19-25, 25-21, 15-11 and 15-9 to reach the finals against Canyon View.
The Pirates proceeded to defeat the Cougars twice to claim the championship. In the first set Canyon View came from behind to win 25-23. Krista Kallas served the final three points for Canyon View. In game two, Mont Harmon trailed 20-17 before rallying to win 25-23. Canyon View won game three 15-10 and led game four 14-13 and had the serve for the win. The serve went into the net for a Pirate point and the Pirates then served twice with neither being returned by Canyon View and Mont Harmon escaped 16-14. Game five saw the Pirates win easily 15-4.
In the final set, Canyon View won game one 25-16 and then watched Mont Harmon win the next three. Those scores were 25-14, 17-15 and 15-9.