OREM — The tournament program wasn’t lying, Desert Hills’ volleyball team indeed had three 6-footers on its squad, including a 6-foot-4 hitter.
It would’ve been easy for the favored Morgan Trojans to be a bit intimidated by that height heading into Thursday’s 3A state championship at UVU, but to their credit they weren’t.
“It’s a little intimidating seeing someone taller than me, but that’s how they get you, so I couldn’t be intimidated by them, I had to know my skills were just as good,” said Morgan senior Anna Cox.
That was the collective attitude of the entire Morgan squad, which paid big dividends as the Trojans beat Desert Hills 25-15, 28-26, 25-21 to capture their second straight 3A championship.
Morgan jumped out to a 10-point lead early in the first set, confidence and momentum that it never relinquished.
“It was important to get that momentum and get a little confidence because going in you see those big tall blocks and you’re not really sure,” said Morgan coach Liz Wiscombe.
Morgan won the first set easily, and then rallied from late deficits in both the second and third sets en route to the title. In the third set, Morgan won three of the last five points which was punctuated by a Cox and Ellee Anderson blocking Desert Hills’ 6-foot-4 Charity Bradley on match point.
“There’s nothing better than getting a block, honestly. Especially against a 6-foot girl who’s extremely talented,” said Cox, who came up big all night recording 14 kills, 11 digs and three blocks.
Marcie Stapley added 15 kills for Morgan, with Anderson recording 39 assists and Brookelyn Hurlbut chipping in with 12 digs and four kills.
All were critical in Morgan racing to a 14-4 lead in the first set, scoring 10 off 11 points during one stretch.
“Coach told us we had to jump on them fast in order to stop them at the beginning, so that’s what we did, we ran lots of quicks, lots of things we knew they couldn’t stop,” said Cox.
Morgan jumped out to another quick lead in the second set, but this time Desert Hills had a response scoring four straight points on two occasions to take a 13-11 lead.
The rest of the second set was tight, and nerves started to kick on both sides of the net late. On its first set point at 24-23, Morgan had a service error. On the next point tied 24-24, adrenaline contributed to Morgan’s kill attempt landing in the first row of the bleachers.
“We usually don’t have two in a row, but we did, we kind of went into a little funk,” said Wiscombe.
Desert Hills returned the favor though with a service error on its first match point, tying the match at 25-25. Another service error a few points later gave Morgan its third match point, and it prevailed on an ace that dropped in between two Desert Hills players.
Desert Hills showed a lot of fight early in the third set, building an early 10-5 lead as it tried to extend the match. Morgan rallied to level the set at 12-12, and the teams proceeded to alternate the next 12 points.
That’s when Morgan started to take over.
Cox recalls telling her teammates in a huddle late in the third set, “this is where we show what we’re made of.”
Morgan won four straight points to stretch its lead to 21-18, one it never relinquished. Cox helped polish off the championship with two kills and then the storybook block in recording the last three points of the season.
“Anna is a great leader for us, she’s got great hops, she can put the ball away and she did a great job — an amazing job — leading us, great year,” said Wiscombe, who coached Morgan to its 14th volleyball state championship dating back to 1989.
She said winning never gets old.
“Every time you win it’s with different people, so it’s amazing and you get that same feeling when kids succeed and they play their very best,” said Wiscombe.
Deseret News prep editor and Real Salt Lake beat writer. EMAIL: jedward@deseretnews.com
