San Juan volleyball earns #2 seed, looks to make a deep run at state

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The San Juan High School volleyball team constructed a run for the ages in their regular season this year, finishing with a 23-4 record. They’re the #2 seed heading into the 2A Utah State Volleyball Tournament and will enjoy a first-round bye.
The Lady Broncos finished off the regular season with straight-sets wins over 3A Manti and local rival Grand County, an exciting five-set win over 6A Riverton, and a tough four-set loss to Provo.
The Lady Bulldogs snapped San Juan’s 17-game winning streak, but those two games this past week against much larger schools served as great pre-tournament warmups for the Lady Broncos.
San Juan showed what they’re truly made of against Riverton on Thursday, October 16. After suffering 25-22 and 25-18 losses in the first two sets the Lady Broncos dug deep to stave off a sweep with a 25-20 set three win.
But they didn’t stop there. San Juan proceeded to win set four 25-20 again, then outlasted the Lady Silverwolves in an unbelievable, hard-fought 16-14 final set, winning 3-2.
Morgann McPherson tallied an incredible 22 kills in the win and Faith Flannery added 16 of her own. Keezie Flannery assisted on a stunning 43 points for San Juan.
The match at Provo was a late addition to the schedule, and the Lady Broncos welcomed another tough challenge on their season-ending road trip this past weekend.
But they found themselves battling from behind again after losing the first set to the Lady Bulldogs 25-19. Impressively San Juan rallied to win set two 25-20.
From that point the home team took control however, defeating the Lady Broncos 25-16 in the third set and 25-14 in the fourth to take a 3-1 win.
McPherson led San Juan with 15 kills in the loss. Flannery collected 28 assists. Averie Gilson had 22 digs on the night with McPherson getting 16 and Flannery 11.
The Lady Broncos are eagerly awaiting their first match in the 2A Utah State Volleyball Tournament and their chance to make a deep run in the postseason.
They’ll head to Utah Valley University in Orem this Friday, October 24 where they’ll begin against the winner of the match between Intermountain Christian and American Heritage.
Tune in to Redrock 92 Radio for updates on the girls’ progress this weekend.