Region 9 volleyball: Key road win puts Snow Canyon in driver’s seat

Written by Andy Griffin
September 23, 2014
Snow Canyon defenders Shaylee Reed (left) and Jordan Gines (right) look to block Tiera Orr's spike, Snow Canyon vs Desert Hills Volleyball, St. George, Utah, September 23, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — If Alexsa “Crash” Parker is this good when she’s sick, pity her opponents when she gets better.

The 5-foot-9 Snow Canyon junior had 22 kills and 24 digs in leading the Warriors to a four-game road win over Desert Hills Tuesday night. Every time the Thunder made a run, it seemed as if Parker brought the streak to a halt with a hammer of a spike. The end result was a 3-1 win (25-17, 25-22, 23-25, 25-21).

Snow Canyons Alexsa "Crash" Parker fires a shot into Desert Hills Defenders Olivia Leavitt (4) and Rachel Winters, Snow Canyon vs Desert Hillsl, St. George, Utah, Sept. 23, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Snow Canyons Alexsa “Crash” Parker fires a shot into Desert Hills Defenders Olivia Leavitt (4) and Rachel Winters, Snow Canyon vs Desert Hillsl, St. George, Utah, Sept. 23, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

“It was a fun atmosphere, tense,” Parker said. “I don’t think tonight is any kind of statement. We’re going to play each other again and every team in the region is getting better. But it was a good win. It took a team effort to get it.”

Shaylee Reed served the final four points of the match, coming up with a pair of aces in the process. With DH ahead 21-20, Parker slammed one to make it 21-21 and give Snow Canyon side out. Reed’s crisp serves helped set up a Jordan Gines kill. Reed then fired consecutive service winners to make it match point at 24-21. After another good serve, the Warriors dug a DH kill attempt, then Kodee Avery set up Gines again. She put the spike away for the match.

“I just wanted to up there and have a decent serve ’cause I knew my team would back me up,” Reed said. “We’ve worked really hard on our serves and I felt confident.”

Snow Canyon started the match off hot, taking the first game fairly easily. With the score 15-13, the Warriors got hot, scoring 10 of the next 14 points. Gines and Reed had kills in the run and Madison Jensen had three aces. Sydnie Hoskins also got a key block on a kill attempt by DH’s Courtney Sheeran.

Parker also had a key serving stretch in Game 2. During her run, SC turned a 19-17 deficit into a 21-19 lead. The Thunder pulled to within 21-20 on a kill by Sheeran, but then committed three straight errors to help SC to a 24-20 lead.

In the third game, Desert Hills captured its only win of the night, taking it 25-23. Sheeran and Alex Garrett dominated the net for the Thunder in that game. Parker had tied the match at 23-23 with a kill, but SC committed a hitting error to make it 24-23 Garrett dinked a kill just inside the line for the win.

ASP_8153Snow Canyon, not too far removed from its dynasty years, had to take a back seat the past two seasons, with Desert Hills winning state in 2012 and Hurricane grabbing the title last season. But with road wins at Hurricane and now at Desert Hills, the Warriors may be back.

“We were really young last year and we knew we’d take some lumps,” SC coach Alaina Parker said. “But we didn’t graduate anybody and we’re learning and getting better.”

The Warriors are now 5-0 in region and will host both Hurricane and DH in the second half of region play. SC hosts Dixie Thursday night.

Desert Hills, 3-2 in region play, is at Canyon View Thursday.

The Tigers were runaway winners at Cedar Tuesday night, taking the match in three games (25-15, 25-21, 25-22). Hurricane finishes the first half of region with a 5-1 record and has a bye Thursday night. HHS is back in action next Tuesday at Dixie.

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Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy Griffin has been in sports media since 1989 and has covered BYU, Utah State and the Utah Jazz as well as all sports in southern Utah. A journalism graduate of USU, Andy has carried on a dual career as both a sports writer and a sports broadcaster and has been heard around the country. He has also been published in USA Today, Sport magazine, The Sporting News, Fairways magazine, the Los Angeles Times and locally in the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Spectrum. Andy was “The Voice of Region 9 sports,” for many years. He also hosted a daily sports talk show for three years called AG in the a.m. Andy has been married to his college sweetheart Shelly for 28 years and has five children ages 13 to 25.

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