3A high school volleyball: North Sanpete rolls into semifinals

OREM — The North Sanpete volleyball team finally put everything together when they reached Utah Valley University for the 3A state volleyball tournament.

And as a result, the Hawks have fought their way into the semifinals with a three game sweep 25-21, 25-13, 25-21 over the defending champion Hurricane Tigers on Friday.

"I don't think we've played a complete game until this morning," said North Sanpete coach Rickie Stewart after her team put on a solid performance throughout its match against the highly-ranked Tigers.

But though the Tigers came into the 3A tournament as the defending champions, they weren't the favorites to grab the title this year. They were, however, on the short list of teams to beat despite their difficulties in the past few weeks.

Hurricane senior right side hitter Sadi Hoyt was in an ATV accident just days before the tournament started and broke three vertebrae, leaving her out for the rest of the season. She is supposed to make a complete recovery in time, but her teammates were still missing their right side and worried about her recovery.

"They've had a couple of tough breaks, and Sadi has a lot of heart and is a really great kid. But I still have to give kudos to our kids because Hurricane is still a good team, and it's always good to get a win over a team like Hurricane," Stewart said.

It left them a little flat, though the Hawks didn't give them much to work with as they dominated almost all the way through the match.

North Sanpete took the huge early lead at 11-6 in Game 1 and could have folded entirely after they lost the whole thing and even allowed the Tigers to take a couple of slim margins at 16-15 and 17-16. But then the Hawks came back strong, taking the first game 25-21 and giving themselves a great deal of momentum heading into the final two games of the match.

The Hawks were led by the swings of Shelby Earl, who turned 14 of Kara Anderson's sets into kills, Lindsay Bradley with nine kills and two blocks, and sophomore Bailee Kendall, who finished with seven kills in the balance Hawk effort.

"I'm really hard on Lindsay," said Stewart of her senior's energetic effort on the night. "She has such potential. She's just so athletic and competes so hard. She's our spark plug out there, our emotional leader."

The Tigers had solid efforts from Kalistina Takau, Angela Shields and Chloe Fawson in the loss.

The Hawks are heading into the semifinals at 10:30 a.m. today to play the Delta Rabbits. Richfield and Morgan will play in the other semifinal matchup at 12:30 p.m.

The Tigers dropped into the one-loss bracket and will be matched up against Grantsville at 9 a.m., meaning 3A will crown a new volleyball champion this year.

3A volleyball pairings

Today's semifinal pairings

At McKay Events Center, Orem

Championshp bracket

North Sanpete vs. Delta, 10:30 a.m.

Richfield vs. Morgan, 12:30 p.m.

*Championship match is at 8 p.m.

*Losers play for third/fourth place is at 3:30 p.m.

Consolation bracket

Hurricane vs. Grantsville, 9 a.m.

Wasatch vs. Desert Hills, 12:30 p.m.

Judge vs. Juan Diego, 9 a.m.

Bear River vs. ALA, 10:30 a.m.

*Winners play again at 2 p.m.

e-mail: jolsen@desnews.com