San Juan volleyball team wins eight straight to start season, but suffers first loss to North Sevier

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The San Juan High School volleyball team was brought back down to earth this past Saturday, September 7 when Region 15-leading North Sevier finally handed them their first loss of the season.
Until that setback, the Lady Broncos had won 21 straight sets and hadn’t lost a single set this season while running their record to 8-0.
In the first game of the week San Juan swept Duchesne in the SJHS gym 25-18, 25-12, and 25-20. Four players registered five kills apiece in that victory: Keezie Flannery, Morgann McPherson, Madi Adams, and Miley Harrison.
Averie Gilson hit four aces in the win with an 87.0 serving percentage. Keegan Palmer was 87.5 percent serving with two aces.
Madden Perkins collected five blocks, Flannery had three, Adams and Lizzie Palmer registered two apiece, and McPherson and Harrison accounted for one each.
McPherson led the team with ten digs against Duchesne, Keegan Palmer had nine, Gilson eight, Flannery seven, and Adams three. Flannery added 16 assists in the win.
The Lady Broncos fell in straight sets to the Lady Wolves on September 7 – 25-16, 25-21, and 25-17. Perkins registered seven kills in the loss, McPherson got five, Harrison hit four, and Adams and Flannery had two each.
San Juan only had two serving aces in the game. Keegan Palmer had two and Keezie Flannery got one. Four players got one block each: Flannery, Perkins, Adams, and Lizzie Palmer.
McPherson got an impressive 26 digs in the loss and Flannery served up 17 assists for her teammates. Gilson received 21 serves on the night and McPherson received 16.
With the loss the Lady Broncos dropped to 8-1 on the year and 1-1 in Region 15 play. The initial 2A RPI standings are set to be released this Wednesday, September 11.
Recently Shelby Eldredge, who’s in her second year coaching San Juan, responded to several questions via email from the San Juan Record, expressing her thoughts on her team’s early performance and the young season.
“After the first two weeks of play, we have seen a lot of great things from our teams,” she began. “All of our teams have won all of their sets and I feel like we are finally pushing ourselves a little harder during the last few points of the game to keep our winning streak alive.
“Our team is young. We don’t have a senior on the team, but we are loaded with eight experienced juniors who have been playing together for many years, seven talented sophomores, and ten freshmen who have been working hard during the offseason and are enthusiastic and hungry to get all the playing time they can.
“Last year we had three seniors and our middle blocker went down with a broken ankle during the state play-in game. We moved Madden Perkins into that position for the rest of the tournament and she is going to continue to play there this year.
“Madden is a good blocker. She has learned to hit those quick sets and will be a great asset to the team this season.
“Miley Harrison also stepped into the opposite hitting position last year at state. She is a smart player and sees the court well. She is playing outside hitter this year and she is powerful.
“Our returning starters are setter Keezie Flannery, libero Averie Gilson, outside hitter Morgann McPherson, and middle blocker Lizzie Palmer. All of those girls continue to play these key roles this year and will be huge contributors to our success.
“Madi Adams is playing opposite hitter while Keegan Palmer and Kellyn Davis have stepped into the defensive specialist position. They are the ones who get our attack going so we rely heavily on them.   All three of those players have stepped up and we believe you will see great things from them throughout the season.
“We have a tough region with North Sevier and North Summit returning many great players after taking third and fourth in the state tournament last year.
“Early last year those teams beat us quite easily, but late in the season we took them both to five sets and they barely squeaked by. We definitely won’t go down quietly and we believe we can beat them this year if we play smart and take care of the ball.
“We may be young at the state level but we will be a top contender and we will surprise a few teams. As a team we will always have the goal of winning a state championship.
“Our girls chose the motto ‘ALL IN’ this year and as coaches we have seen girls who are hungry and want to play. We usually have to kick the girls out of the gym every night because they want to continue practicing.
“As a team, we want to be ‘STRONG’ – physically, emotionally, mentally, and socially. We are constantly working on this and have seen huge gains from last year.
“It’s something we have to work on every day if we want to be the strongest and most successful team in 2A.
“I love what I have seen so far this season. I love the girls on this year’s team and how they step up to all the challenges they are given each day.”
The San Juan volleyball team will close out a two-week homestand when they host Gunnison Valley on Thursday, August 12, Uintah on Friday, August 13, and Grand County on Tuesday, August 17.