San Juan volleyball team gears up for 2A state tournament
by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The San Juan High School volleyball team traveled to Richfield on Friday, October 11 to play in the two-day Sevier Valley Slam tournament. They faced a gauntlet of tough teams at the event.
Their opponents were all top-five teams in their respective classifications except Kanab, who was sixth in the 2A entering the tournament. The four teams they faced in pool play combined for a 70-37 record on the year.
It was a challenging trip for the Lady Broncos, and they came home with just one win – a straight-sets victory over Rich in the weekend-ending “playoff” game that concluded pool play.
All the pool play matches were best-of-three affairs. San Juan suffered 2-1 losses to 3A #4 South Summit and 1A #1 Panguitch in their opening two games on Friday night.
On Saturday they lost 2-0 to 2A #4 South Sevier and 2-1 to 2A #6 Kanab. Then they capped off the weekend with the 3-0 win over Rich.
It didn’t get any easier for the Lady Broncos after the Richfield trip as they were forced to hit the road again almost immediately.
They traveled right back up to Salina to take on the #1 team in 2A volleyball, North Sevier, on October 15. The girls battled hard, but fell to the Lady Wolves in straight sets.
This past Thursday, October 17 San Juan came up against another tough opponent in their ninth straight road game in Bayfield, CO.
The Lady Broncos won the opening set of the match against the Lady Wolverines 25-16, but struggled from that point, losing three straight sets and the match 3-1.
Despite the tough past two weeks San Juan has had an excellent season and they’re in a good position headed into the 2A Utah State Tournament this weekend.
Prior to the 2A RPI standings being taken offline by the Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA) the Lady Broncos were in eighth place. They are 16-11 overall and 5-4 in Region 15 play.
They closed out their regular season with a match against Grand County in Moab on Tuesday, October 22. The UHSAA will release the final RPI standings and state tournament bracket on Wednesday, October 23.
It’s likely San Juan will host a first-round match against a team seeded 20th or higher on Saturday, October 26. With a win they would advance to the remainder of the tournament at the Sevier Valley Center November 1-2.