Region 9 volleyball recap: Desert Hills leads standings heading into regular season finale

Written by Jeff Richards
October 13, 2020
Snow Canyon at Dixie, St. George, Utah, Oct. 8, 2020 | Photo by Dave Larson, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — The Desert Hills High School volleyball team is already assured a share of the Region 9 championship heading into Tuesday night’s regular season finale. If the 12-1 Thunder defeat the third-place Dixie Flyers (10-3), they’ll clinch the region title.

However, if Dixie beats Desert Hills, second-place Snow Canyon (10-2) could potentially tie Desert Hills for first place, should the Warriors beat Hurricane on Tuesday night and then defeat Pine View on Oct. 20 in a make-up game for a postponed match.

In a marquee matchup last Thursday at Dixie, Snow Canyon lost the first set but rallied back to defeat the Flyers in four (23-25, 26-24, 25-14, 25-13). Katie Langford paced the Warriors with 22 kills.

The statewide RPI rankings are scheduled to be hidden from view on the Utah High School Activities Association’s website starting Wednesday.

The final rankings, along with the seeded playoff bracket, will then be revealed Oct. 21 at 9 a.m.

Crimson Cliffs at Desert Hills, St. George, Utah, Oct. 6, 2020 | Photo by Dave Larson, St. George News

For the 4A state playoffs, teams will play the first two rounds on Oct. 24 at selected “pod sites” on the home courts of the top seeded teams. Then the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals of the 4A state tournament are scheduled for Oct. 27-28 at the Sevier Valley Center in Richfield.

Click here to see the full bracket (teams to be filled in later).

Tuesday night’s full Region 9 schedule is as follows, Each varsity contest starts at 7 p.m.:

  • Dixie at Desert Hills.
  • Hurricane at Snow Canyon.
  • Crimson Cliffs at Cedar.
  • Canyon View at Pine View.

Below are the current standings as of Monday evening. Note that even though Desert Hills won both of its region contests last week, the Thunder still dropped in the statewide RPI rankings from third to fifth, as they lost a few games last weekend in a nonregion tournament to larger schools such as Corner Canyon and Skyridge.

Several other Region 9 teams have been or will be filling out their schedules with various nonregion matches and tournaments the last two weeks of the regular season, which officially ends the night of Oct. 20. Although such games don’t count in the region standings, they do affect a team’s RPI ranking.

Region 9 volleyball standings, as of Oct. 12 (region record, overall, RPI)

  1. Desert Hills 12-1 (18-8) 5th RPI.
  2. Snow Canyon 10-2 (15-7) 6th RPI.
  3. Dixie 10-3 (15-10) 10th RPI.
  4. Crimson Cliffs 8-5 (14-10) 9th RPI.
  5. Cedar 6-7 (12-13) 14th RPI.
  6. Hurricane 3-10 (7-19) 16th RPI.
  7. Pine View 2-10 (3-16) 17th RPI.
  8. Canyon View 0-13 (6-16) 19th RPI.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Richards, a native of Salt Lake City with family roots in Panguitch, lived in Moab for 20 years before joining St. George News in 2017. Jeff is a longtime journalist and secondary school teacher. He and his wife Penny are the parents of five daughters. They also have three young grandsons. Jeff and his family enjoy swimming, camping, sightseeing, reading, and taking pictures.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @stgnews@moabjeff@stgnewssports

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