Mtn. View tunes up for postseason

OREM — The Mountain View volleyball team gathered momentum for the playoffs by quickly sweeping Timpanogos, 25-20, 25-19, 25-19 Thursday.

The Bruins finished the season with a 6-4 Region 4 record, which automatically lands them in third place in the league. The loss will send Timpanogos into a tie-break game as both the T-Wolves and American Fork ended the season with identical 3-7 records, including a split against each other. The winner of the tiebreaker, which will most likely be played Nov. 1, will get into the playoffs as the fourth seed in Region 4, and the loser's season will end.

Timpanogos won the first match between the two teams in a five-game thriller, and American Fork took the second in a three-game sweep. Each won on its home court. Tiebreaker matches take place on neutral courts. If either of the teams had been able to find a way to win Thursday night they'd have finished alone in fourth place, but Lone Peak swept American Fork as the Bruins took care of the T-Wolves.

"I think we played a pretty good team game today," said Mountain View coach Jon Fairbanks. "Everybody stepped up and played at a high level. It gave us a lot of momentum going into state."

The state tournament will be held Nov. 4 and 5 at UVSC, and Mountain View will join tournament favorites Pleasant Grove and Lone Peak from Region 4 in addition to the American Fork/Timpanogos victor.

"This is just a very deep region. We play against good teams every match," said Fairbanks, who believes playing in the Utah County league gave the Bruins a good taste of what life will be like in the tournament at UVSC.

He believes his team's greatest asset is the balanced attack it can use every time out. "We can use all our hitters because they can all step up to the challenge. We just find a mismatch and try to exploit it," Fairbanks added.

Outside hitter Alyssa Merrell took over in Game 1 for Mountain View and led the Bruins overall with 14 kills followed by a solid effort from Angie Glassford, who finished with 11 kills. Three other Bruins tied for third place honors on the team with four kills each. The Bruins also put up a tough block against the T-Wolves with sophomore Macy Merrell scoring two stuffs and Noelle Pitcher picking up a solo block to end the match.

The Bruins took advantage of quick scoring runs in each game as otherwise the teams played it close.

In other games Thursday:

REGION 2