Steady pace for San Juan volleyball team keeps them in the mix among top 2A teams
by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
North Sevier, North Summit, and Parowan have dominated the Utah 2A volleyball ranks this season. The teams have combined for 51 wins and just six losses.
The San Juan High School volleyball team is fully aware of how tough they are. Four of the Lady Broncos’ five losses this season have come against those three opponents. The other one came against 4A Uintah.
In the past two weeks San Juan suffered back-to-back losses to the #2-ranked Lady Braves. On September 26 they were defeated in straight sets.
In Coalville this past Friday, October 4 the Lady Broncos mustered a 28-26 win in a hard-fought first set, but suffered three straight losses to drop the match.
Sandwiched between those two losses San Juan cruised to a straight-sets win over the rival Monticello Lady Buckaroos at home on Tuesday, October 1.
On their way home from Coalville the Lady Broncos stopped by Duchesne where they picked up a nice four-set win over the Lady Eagles in a Region 15 showdown.
San Juan has won five of their last seven games. They sport a 15-5 record and are fifth in the 2A RPI standings – pretty impressive for a team that boasts zero seniors.
So the girls are right in the mix and most definitely deserve to be mentioned among the likes of North Sevier, North Summit, Parowan, and South Sevier.
Two-thirds of the way through the regular season Morgann McPherson leads the team with 230 kills, which is tied for 19th in the state. She’s averaging 3.8 kills per set, and she owns a 36.8 kill percentage and a .211 hit percentage.
Keezie Flannery has served up 50 aces on the year, which is 22nd in the state. She has a 17.2 ace percentage and a very solid 92.1 serve percentage.
Lizzie Palmer leads the team with 30 blocks this season – 24 assisted and six solo. That’s an average of 1.5 blocks per match. McPherson has 217 digs on the year, which is an average of almost 11 per match and ranks 37th in the state.
Flannery’s team-leading 479 assists are 15th-most in the state and an average of almost eight assists per set. Averie Gilson leads the Lady Broncos with 331 serve receptions this season for an average of 16.6 per match.
San Juan is gearing up for a busy weekend that will bring some tough matchups at the Sevier Valley Slam tournament in Richfield.
On Friday, October 11 they open the tourney against 3A #4 South Summit. They’ll face the #1 team in the 1A ranks, Panguitch later that evening in game two.
The Lady Broncos begin day two of the tournament against the fourth-ranked team in the 2A, the South Sevier Lady Rams on Saturday, October 12. Then they’ll the team ranked right below them – the Kanab Lady Cowboys. One “playoff” game will conclude the weekend.
Following that gauntlet San Juan will hit the road on Tuesday, October 15 for a rematch with North Sevier, where they’ll try to split their season series with the 2A #1-ranked Lady Wolves.