San Juan High volleyball team wins Skyline Tournament of Champions

The San Juan High School volleyball team spent last weekend, September 6-7 at Skyline High School in Millcreek, where the 2019 Tournament of Champions was in full swing. It’s a big event for the Lady Broncos, who were one of only three teams below the 4A ranks to participate.

They did a lot more than just participate. On Friday they swept Roy and Murray, but suffered losses in straight sets to Mountain View and Park City.

The Lady Broncos opened Saturday in single-elimination Gold Bracket play with a straight-sets win over the Enterprise Lady Wolves. In a rematch with Mountain View, the Lady Bruins scored an opening set win and San Juan found themselves on the brink of elimination.

But the Lady Broncos were determined to get their money’s worth at the tournament, and promptly rallied to dispatch Mountain View in the second and third sets of the match.

The comeback win set San Juan up for a rematch with the Park City Lady Miners in a battle for the tournament championship. In the Final, the Lady Broncos rode the momentum of their semifinal win to sweep Park City and take their first-ever Tournament of Champions title.

After the win, San Juan Head Coach Kelli Keyes talked about the girls’ struggles on Friday night. “We couldn’t pass,” she said, “especially against Mountain View, so we couldn’t run our offense.”

But the Lady Broncos turned the tables on Saturday. “Resiliency is what won us that tournament – losing to those teams and then coming back to beat them,” said Keyes.

“Winning the tournament feels really good,” explained Keyes. “It’s a great momentum boost to start region play this week.”

But she added that the team still needs to take the season one game at a time and focus ahead on their next game.

Referring to the Lady Broncos’ ability to bounce back at the Tournament of Champions, Keyes said, “The players are very quick to fix the mistakes they make which makes it really easy.

“They help one another bounce back and they’re able to move on to the next ball. That is huge, because when you focus too much on the error on the last play, you can’t move on.

Move on they will. The girls take a 9-2 overall record into a very busy week of Region 12 matchups. They faced the Emery Lady Spartans on Tuesday, September 10. They travel to Richfield on Friday, September 13, and then to Monroe to take on South Sevier Saturday, September 14.