By Tom Zulewski, Iron County Today
As the Canyon View Falcons moved forward toward its first 3A volleyball final, head coach Lynette Whitaker knew her team had the energy, the stamina and the grit to face the challenge of the Richfield Wildcats.
After dropping the second set, CV responded and rallied to grab a piece of history Whitaker, the team and the school will remember for a long time to come.
The Falcons beat Richfield 3-1 in the 3A championship game Nov. 2, taking the last two sets, 25-23 and 25-19. CV not only won its first state volleyball title, they finished 30-2 on the season. After the Wildcats won the second set 25-16 to even the match, Whitaker knew what adjustments were needed.
“There was an energy drop in the second set. We let the game get bigger than it was,” Whitaker said. “Instead, we had to play each point one at a time. If we played our game and everyone got rolling, we wouldn’t do a fifth set.”
The Falcons never trailed in the fourth set, but Richfield stayed close until the late stages. CV finished off the win by closing with an 8-4 run capped off when a kill bounced off a Wildcat player and sailed well out of bounds.
As her team celebrated with loud and proud cheers, Whitaker reflected on all the good things that came with the achievement.
“This is more than special. It’s Canyon View history,” Whitaker said. “These girls are special, and 30 wins took a lot of hard work. They took a lot of time and effort and put everything they had into this season.”
Richfield was seeded No. 6 coming into the tournament and advanced to the final by pulling off a 3-1 upset win over No. 2 North Sanpete. Despite the team’s 17-14 record, Whitaker knew the Falcons had to be ready.
“Richfield was playing better than they had during the season,” Whitaker said. “State’s a different game, and they played like it. (Head coach) Cassy (Moon) had them ready to go.”
CV reached the final with a 3-0 sweep over the Morgan Trojans, their third of the tournament.