SPRINGVILLE — Springville rushed out to a quick start, taking down Salem Hills in three quick games 25-11, 25-22, 25-19, giving themselves a nice 2-0 start to the Region 8 season.

The Red Devils have high hopes of a Region 8 championship this season, as they believe they are fielding one of their best volleyball teams in the past 20 years. They are also in the midst of a region that has been pulled together from an odd group of schools. Schools in the midst of a season of change.

The Red Devils biggest competition for the region crown will most likely come from the solid play of Spanish Fork and their superstar hitter Erin Redd, the one school in the region that has dropped from the 5A ranks back down to 4A this year after losing a large number of students to a pair of new schools in the past two years.

One of those new schools was Salem Hills, which is making the jump up to 4A this season after spending its inaugural year as a 3A school. Uintah has also made a jump up from 3A to 4A and has been thrown into the mix. Maple Mountain is a brand new school this year, and is hoping to make its first year memorable. And two schools, Payson and Springville, will remain in 4A as they're the only two schools that spent last year in the same region.

"Most of the teams in the region are new, but they have good coaches, and they're coming along well," said Springville coach Suzette Hartvigsen, who took over the Red Devils volleyball team this season and was the long time softball coach until retiring three years ago from that sport.

Hartvigsen likes the looks of her team and really thinks it has the qualities for taking home the region title, but she won't dismiss any of her competition, especially Spanish Fork.

The Red Devils have a pair of jump serving hitters that were hitting their spots all night against the Skyhawks in Turia Andrus and Kristin Clark, both juniors that have played for the Red Devils in past seasons.

Andrus led all players with 15 kills against the Skyhawks, and Clark added eight in the three-game match.

"I feel like we played a really good defensive game as well. Teamwise we were really clicking tonight," said Hartvigsen, who is giving much of the credit to her pair of setters that are currently working in a 6-2 offense.

"I have two setters who work hard. Jenny Scott is good at reading open spaces, and is an enthusiastic team leader, and she likes running a 6-2 offense this year because it gives her an opportunity to hit, which she hasn't had," said Hartvigsen, who added that Nichole Barton is also a solid setter that deserves every moment of floor time she gets.