| Lady Spartans show their team spirit. |
The Emery High Spartan volleyball team opened region play last week with a 5-game victory over the Lehi Pioneers in Castle Dale. Playing brilliantly at times, Emery won 25-14, 25-19,18-25,19-25 and 15-7.
Playing in Region 8 where great volleyball is the norm, defeating Lehi was a necessity if the Spartans want to advance to the State play-offs.
In the opening set, the Spartans played as a unit and looked dominating as they clearly frustrated the Pioneers. In the two sets they lost, it appeared that the Spartans had lost some of their intensity and concentration as Lehi fought back. In the last set, the Spartans again looked really good.
Emery starts three seniors and three juniors and rotates in two other seniors and a junior and a sophomore. The seniors are Misty Nielson, Mandi Weihing and Jerica Jensen. The juniors are Ashley Hansen, Natalee Hanson and Tahna Merrell. Rotating in are Adrian McNee, Krista Ungerman, Shaylie Huntington and Rachel Rasmussen.
Mandi and Krista did very well in running the offense and setting the ball. Misty and Natalee had some awesome spikes and the players on the back row did a great job of keeping the ball in play.
Earlier in the season, the Spartans won the Union tournament going 5-0. They also played in the Weber tournament and went 4-4 in that tournament against mostly 4-A schools. They lost in Blanding to the 2-A number 1 ranked team, San Juan.
Later in the week, the Spartans traveled to Price and lost to the second ranked Lady Dinos 25-13, 25-12, 25-20. Team members are: Adrian McNee, Jerica Jensen, Misty Nielson, Mandi Weihing, Krista Ungerman, Natalee Hanson, Shari Tuttle, Shaylie Huntington, Tahna Merrell, Ashley Hansen, Kassie Allred, Shalae Cox, Rachel Rasmussen, Haylie Hansen, Maegan Luke, Jackie Rogers, Camille Fehlberg, Brandee Wilson, Charlotte Withers, Jalee Jensen, Meagan Pearson and Tamra Luke.