OREM — Two Region 9 teams blasted into the 3A State Semifinals Friday, while another pair of southern Utah teams will go home disappointed.
Region champs Desert Hills cruised past Payson and Juan Diego to make the semis, while Snow Canyon defeated Spanish Fork and Judge Memorial and is in the semifinals in the lower bracket.
Dixie and Hurricane dropped matches and fell into the consolation bracket.
“It was an exciting day up here,” DH coach Jill Swaney said from the McKay Events Center. “Dixie and powerhouse Morgan had a real battle and Snow Canyon is really playing well, too. If we end up playing them in the finals, it will be an honor.”
Swaney’s Thunder team swept past Payson in the morning game, 25-13, 25-17, 25-12.
“That was fairly easy,” she said. “I was able to to play every single player I brought on the trip, which was really fun and a great opportunity for our young players.”
Desert Hills opened its quarterfinal match with Juan Diego by dropping the opening game 25-19.
“We just didn’t come out hot,” Swaney said. “We didn’t know what to expect. But we made a line-up change. We put in Courtney Sheeran. She’s a sophomore. She did great. They served it to her right away and she made a great pass and her confidence just soared after that.”
The Thunder then swept the next three games 25-14, 25-21 and 25-17 to earn a trip into the semis.
Dixie and Snow Canyon both dominated in their opening matches with the Warriors beating Spanish Fork 25-14, 25-17, 25-9 and the Flyers downing North Sanpete 25-10, 25-13, 25-15.
Snow Canyon then swept Judge out of the winner’s bracket 25-17, 25-23, 25-11, earning the Warriors their semifinal berth.
Dixie found itself facing defending champ and perennial powerhouse Morgan in the quarterfinals. The Flyers took the first game 25-17, but then dropped twin 25-20 games to fall behind 2-1 in games.
Reaching deep, Dixie captured the fourth game 25-22. But the champs took the fifth game 15-10 to head into a semifinal match with Snow Canyon.
Desert Hills will face Delta in the first semifinal at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Snow Canyon and Morgan then battle at 12:30 in the other semi.
The championship game is at 8 p.m. Saturday night.
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