On Wednesday, September 4, this week’s sole Varsity homestand was a dramatic barnburner with breathtaking action down to the wire versus the Wayne Badgers!
Left to right, photos by Jerry Melrose:
Sharing that memorable moment of exultant, exuberant joy after defying even their own expectations of defeating their elder sisters for second place Valley’s JV Tournament. They are (left-to-right): #35 Raylie Brinkerhoff, #22 Rossi Reeve, #14 Kinlie Frost, #17 Brianna Martinez, #20 Ajla Pyne, #10 Kaycee Heaton, #4 Sadie Bauer, #21 Payten Strong, #16 Shaylee Dayea, Coach Micah Young and Lexie Young.
Victorious second-place Valley Black team-members are (left rear-to right): Coach Esther Torgerson, Rossi Reeve, Brianna Martinez, Kinlie Frost, Raylie Brinkerhoff and Shelayne Goulding. Front row: Kaycee Heaton, Sadie Bauer, Lexie Young, Shatlee Dayea and Payten Strong. Way to go, Lady Buffalos!
After posting an early two-set lead [25- 21, 27-25], it seemed only a matter of imminent time before the hammer slammed on the visitors’ hopes, as apparently slim as they seemed. However, never-to-be-counted-out determination rose among them while answering by that very margin during the following two-set series [26-24, 25-23]. Yet, with relieving sighs of respect for their opponents’ brave efforts, the Valley gals edged gradually ahead to claim the tiebreaker for the win: 15-13!
Not to be overly confident atop their current league-leading 1A Region 20 undefeated [4-0] status, Head Coach Harmony Cox reckons there’s still more to learn on the horizon. “Yeah, it was good for us to see what we need to do better on things like serve/receive and serving runs are huge for us. When we don’t get serving runs of four or five, or six in a row, we struggle. So, we’ve got to do better on all of those. The little things mattered a lot tonight. We finally got it done, but we’ve got some work to do.”
Earlier, the Freshman squad won in three-straight [25-23, 25-11,15-6], and the JV’s prevailed in four [26-27, 25-19, 25-6, 15-12].
That Saturday, Valley hosted their annual JV Tournament with invitees Kanab, Bryce Valley, El Capitan (Colorado City), Escalante, Parowan and Piute, as well as two Valley groups. The Valley Orange team consisting of juniors and sophomores, and the Valley Black of freshmen along with two sophomores: Brianna Martinez and Lexie Young. Divided to play in the New Gym was the Gold Bracket of Pool A and the Silver Bracket of Pool B in the Old Gym.
Following preliminary games beginning at 9 a.m., teams were assigned seedings dependent on win/loss records and point spreads. In the Old Gym’s Pool B play Kanab prevailed over Valley Black: 27-26, 25-19. However, Valley Black earned their way into contention for the second/third-place match versus Valley Orange that afternoon in the New Gym. Surprisingly, dare it be noted shockingly, the young upstarts proved themselves victors: 25-19, 27-25, 16-14! Although they dropped the Championship to the undefeated 2A Parowan Rams, they exhibited a True Grit sense of high-purpose and promise for prominence on future endeavors ...
Coach Esther Torgerson, in her initial campaign, graciously detailed both their training and mindset. “Going into it, we talked about it afterwards, as a team we’re reading a book this year called The Champion Way. And one of the things we’ve implemented is ‘Love is Hard Work made Visible.’ And that’s what they did that first set, and I kept telling them that, ‘We are swinging to win. We are swinging and we are talking. And we are gonna go, and we’re gonna make the other team better, because we know them!’
“And then, into that Championship game, that second game: it’s a long game, and we might have fallen; but we will rise! And there were tears from our girls; but I told them, ‘I want you to cry. I want you to remember what this feels like; because on Monday it’ll light a fire under you. So, you can comeback: so, you can rise! You can be a Champion another day!”
Next up is in Panguitch on Wednesday, September 11, at 4, 5:30 and 7 p.m. Then on to Millard for their Freshman/Sophomore Tournament with times to be announced.
