The Lady Spartan volleyball squad proved that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, at the 3A State Volleyball Championships last weekend at Utah Valley University. Emery faced three of the top five teams in the state and proved that sometimes the RPI is just a number, turning their No. 12 ranking into a third place finish.
The Spartans finished the regular season 13-13 overall record and an impressive 6-2 record in Region 12 play, the finish earned them the No. 12 seed in the 3A State Volleyball Championships.
In the opening round match at Utah Valley, the Spartans faced off against the No. 5 Delta Rabbits. Earlier this season the two teams faced each other with the Rabbits taking a 3-0 win.
Emery came out in the first set taking a 25-17 win. Sets two and three went to Delta 25-13 and 25-20. Emery stormed back taking set four 25-15 and set five 15-10, defeating Delta 3-2 and advancing to the next round.
In their second and final match of Friday, the Spartans faced the No. 13 Manti Templars, this was another re-match from earlier in the season, with Emery taking the win in that meeting 3-0.
Knowing that they had already beaten them once was perhaps a comfort to Emery because they came out flat losing set one 25-13. After that though, it was all Spartans, winning the next three sets 25-19, 25-10 and 25-12, putting them at 3-0 in the tournament and moving them into Saturday.
In their first match of the day , Emery would draw the No.1 team in 3A, the Morgan Trojans. Last year, the Trojans were the runner-up in the 3A Championships falling to Union in the finals. The Spartans gave the Trojans everything they wanted, with Morgan winning the match 3-1, but Emery made sure every set was a battle.
In the first set Morgan earned the 25-23 win. Set two was another tough one with the Trojans taking a 27-25 win. Emery saw the opportunity in set three and took it grabbing a 25-13 win, but the fourth and final match would go to Morgan 25-23. The Trojans would go on to win the championship title defeating Richfield 3-1. The loss dropped Emery to the third and fourth place game where they would face the No. 3 Ogden Tigers.
The Spartans were not completely unfamiliar with the Tigers they defeated them last year at the championships in straight sets. This year would be a little more of a clash than last year.
Emery came out taking the first two sets 25-15 and 25-11. The Tigers fought back, taking sets three and four by the same score of 25-17. In the fifth and final set, the Spartans shut the door on Ogden taking a 15-11 victory along with a third place finish in 3A.
The Spartans finished the season 17-14, and from the path of the No. 12 seed ended the season as a top three program in the state.
Congratulations to the Emery Lady Spartan volleyball team on their terrific season.