High school volleyball: Vikings beat surprising Wolves, win tourney

HIGHLAND — Pleasant Grove rolled to the overall championship at the Asics Rocky Mountain Champions Classic this weekend, but not without a few bumps and bruises.

The No. 1 Vikings had to face No. 2 Lone Peak in the semifinals instead of in the finals, as expected.

But unranked and unheralded Fremont, after taking out several ranked teams, faced Lone Peak in the final round of pool play. The Knights had breezed past its opponents to that point, but the Silver Wolves — after losing their first game to Lone Peak and trailing badly in Game 2 — came back to defeat the Knights 18-25, 26-24, 15-11 and send them into the early matchup against Pleasant Grove.

The Vikings and Knights went the distance with five tight games, but Pleasant Grove finally came out on top with a 18-25, 25-22, 26-28, 25-21, 15-12 victory

Meanwhile, Fremont beat No. 3 Brighton for the right to face the heavily favored Vikings for the title. The Silver Wolves kept things close, losing in the end 25-22, 25-22, 25-15 behind some impressive Pleasant Grove play.

"The girls came here to get to know how to play tough competition, and they knew what they had to do to take care of everyone," said Pleasant Grove assistant coach Marlyn Kartchner.

Brooke McAllister finished the match against Fremont with 10 kills and 10 digs. Danica Mendivil added 10 kills and 20 digs, Kim Dahl had seven kills, Jennifer Hamsen added seven kills and seven blocks, and Kemi McFarland finished with 31 assists in the finals.

But the Fremont Silver Wolves weren't happy to just finish second.

"I love it when we don't get ranked. We want to get gelling and earn our name for ourselves. I'm excited we've come together so quickly and so aggressively," said Fremont coach Tammy McKean.

The Silver Wolves played well behind their senior leadership and were led in the finals by Erica Nish's 15 kills and three aces in the finals and Bethany Wray's eight kills. Melissa Pelaez added a pair of aces for the team as well against Pleasant Grove in the loss. Snow Canyon won the silver division over Cottonwood in a tough five-game match; Hurricane defeated Layton for the bronze trophy; and American Fork took the Copper with a win over Hunter.

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