High school volleyball: Rocky Mountain Classic has upsets aplenty

HIGHLAND — The Rocky Mountain Classic volleyball tournament brings together many of the top teams in the Rocky Mountain region. This year 13 of those teams are from Utah, two from Idaho and one from Nevada.

This group includes six defending state champions, including the 5A champs from last year and host of the annual tournament Lone Peak Knights.

Most years it's a no-brainer that Lone Peak will waltz its way through the early rounds and into the gold medal bracket. But that didn't happen this year as Lone Peak suffered a pair of upsets that landed it in the lower brackets for the first time in the tournament's history.

First the Knights went out against the Layton Lancers, losing the first game, coming back in the second and falling in the third 15-11. They squeaked out a close one against San Juan in three games, and then finished things off with a three-game loss to Region 4 rival and No. 5-ranked Brighton in the final game of the evening. This left the current No. 1-ranked Lone Peak with a pair of losses and no chance of making it into the gold medal games.

Meanwhile, the Layton Lancers took their lumps in the same bracket as the Knights but pulled out three wins for the first place seed out of their bracket heading into more round robin play beginning at 8 am. Today.

Layton took out both Lone Peak and Brighton in three exciting games while taking care of San Juan in just a pair.

In other action at the Lone Peak site of the Classic, the Dixie Flyers put on quite a show with three straight exciting matches that went the distance.

The Flyers started things out against the Hunter Wolverines, losing Game 1 with a 25-15 score. Dixie was able to come back strong in the second to win 25-23, but then fell again in the third 16-14. But that was only the first of the Flyers three-game matches of the day.

The Hunter Wolverines were happy to come away with the victory against the Flyers as Clotile Harris led them with 11 kills in that match. The difference the Wolverine's coach sees in the team from last year is that the girls have much more experience and more confidence.

"It's our focus, our goal to stay in games until the end," said Hunter coach Pam Olson.

She noted that her team tended to lose confidence and drop close matches at the end last year, and she hopes her team has overcome that propensity and will be able to win the close ones this year. They defeated both Dixie and Morgan in close contests in the tournament but lost to Eagle Mountain, a team out of Idaho, in their third match.