Region 9 volleyball: Tigers take down Thunder in 5, grab first place

Written by Andy Griffin
September 11, 2014
Desert Hills at Hurricane, Hurricane, Utah, Sept. 9, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

HURRICANE — Early last November, Hurricane beat Desert Hills in a stunning three-game sweep to capture the 3A State Championship at Utah Valley University. The Lady Thunder had dominated the region all-season long, going 12-0 and seemed a shoo-in to win the state title. Two of those region wins were sweeps over Hurricane, so many called the Tigers’ championship win a fluke.

Tiger spiker Rachel Nielsen had 29 kills, Desert Hills at Hurricane, St. George, Utah, September 9, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Tiger spiker Rachel Nielsen had 29 kills, Desert Hills at Hurricane, St. George, Utah, September 9, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

Tuesday night, coach Daniel Makeehan’s Tigers team served notice that it was no flash in the pan last year as Hurricane defeated Desert Hills in the two teams’ first meeting since the 2013 title game.

This time, it was a five-game barnburner, with the Lady Tigers winning the first two games, dropping the next two, then finally finishing off the Thunder in the tiebreaker. The final tally was 25-23, 25-21, 19-25, 20-25, 15-10. Each team scored exactly 104 points in the tight contest.

The offensive star for Hurricane was Rachel Nielsen, who had 29 kills and 8 aces. Setter Addie Edwards racked up 55 assists. Defensively, Hannah Rich was stellar with 48 digs.

Hurricane, 10-2 overall, went to 3-0 in region, with Desert Hills falling to 6-4 overall and 2-1 in region. The Tigers are home for Snow Canyon next Tuesday. D-Hills hosts Pine View Tuesday night.

Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery. 

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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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