Alta hangs tough for sweep of American Fork

AMERICAN FORK — Two teams fighting for their playoff lives squared off on the volleyball courts at American Fork High. The Alta Hawks and the Cavemen were tied with Jordan in the loss column for the fourth and final playoff position in Region 4.

And it was the Alta Hawks that held things together better, giving themselves a shot at sneaking into the state tournament in possibly the state's most difficult region with a 25-16, 26-24, 25-21 victory over the Cavemen.

The Hawks now find themselves deadlocked with a 4-6 region record for the final playoff spot with the Jordan Beetdiggers after Jordan's loss to Pleasant Grove. Meanwhile, the Cavemen are probably on the outside looking in after dropping to 3-7 in rough region action.

Both teams came out in Game 1 with an obvious case of nerves, but after starting with a boatload of errors from both sides of the net and evening things up at 7-7 early in the first game, the Hawks cleaned things up and went on a 6-0 run to give themselves a nice cushion.

While Alta settled in nicely, cutting down on its errors, the Cavemen continued to shoot themselves in the feet with mental, hitting and service mistakes all match long.

Though Alta only had seven kills in each of the first two games, and the Cavemen pounded the ball down on the other side with greater frequency in each of the first two games, the Hawks were able to make American Fork think a little too much and put the ball into difficult positions for the Cavemen.

The Hawks finished the match with only six service errors, putting the ball into play nicely all match long. The Cavemen had more than double the service errors with 13. Meanwhile, the Cavemen only had one extra ace with 11 compared to the Hawks' 10.

Game 2 was American Fork's best shot at grabbing a game from the team from the North as they fought through 10 ties and led about half of the game with a pair of game points coming at 24-22 and 24-23. But The Cavemen couldn't hold onto the lead, and the Hawks came back partly due to a pair of Cavemen service errors and an ace by Scout Heizer.

Kaitlyn Vanhoff finally finished things off with a kill on the Hawks' first game point, giving them a 2-0 lead and taking a little of the American Fork punch away.

Game 3 was another tight one as the two teams counterpunched through another nine ties, the last coming at 14 apiece before the Hawks took charge once again.

The balanced Hawks were led offensively by Kenzie Mitchell with seven kills. Nicole Koehler and Vanhoff each added six kills to the effort. Heizer finished the match with only one kill but had five important aces in a terrific service effort.

The Cavemen were led by all-star Makenzie Moea'i, who finished with 14 kills even though she looked a little off her game. Jessica Jardine added seven kills, though she couldn't get herself going in the first game. And Jennifer Orton added six kills in the loss.

e-mail: jolsen@desnews.com