The Lady Cowboys traveled to Enterprise on Tuesday, October 18, for our last region game. We knew if we could get this win we could line up to be region or co-region champs - just dependent on how the other region games played out. Varsity had gone five sets when Enterprise came to Kanab, so we knew we would need to focus and bring our A-game. Enterprise home court is a hard place to get wins at; they always have a big crowd to support them, along with tonight being their senior night. The Cowboys came out strong though! They have learned to love a challenge.
Our Frosh team has come a long way as coach Broadhead has done an excellent job this year. The frosh girls hadn’t ever gotten a win in the past against the Enterprise teams their age, but they were determined to change that and start things off right for the night. It took them five sets, but the Frosh team came out victorious! JV swept their team pretty easily in three. Great job girls!
Now onto Varsity - Ashlyn Houston started the game by pushing four serves including one ace. Haylie McQuivey followed by pushing three great serves. Emilie Gilberg added a service point and an ace to the games tally. The Cowboys had a decent lead started when Enterprise turned the tables and went on a scoring run to tie things up, then even taking a small lead. The Lady Cowboys answered back and battled for every point. Our hitters were pretty even threats and scored wherever Anna Cutler sent the ball. Savannah Bateman and Houston each had four kills in the first set and Livi Bundy and Madi Orton added three each. Things were pretty close into the 20’s until the end where Kanab took the lead and ended the set 25-21.
In the second set the Cowboys kept their momentum and things really rolled out well. London Fenus pushed four great serves including two aces. Cutler also pushed four great serves. Orton brought her powerful swing and put away five kills the second set, moving the ball around really well hitting different spots. Bundy added two great kills from the middle. Gilberg, Houston, Fenus and McQuivey had an almost perfect serve receive night. Hadley Barnson, Orton and Houston all got sweet blocks at one a piece. It was a great team effort that ended the second set at 25-14. A nice comfortable ending score.
The third set wouldn’t be as comfortable, as the Wolves knew they had to get a set to stay in the game. McQuivey, Cutler and Houston pushed top serves this set. Orton and Bateman both led with seven kills apiece. We got a controversial call on our game point that would have ended the game 25-23, so we had to keep playing. The Cowboys fought until the end though and it paid off. We were able to end the set 27-25 and get the big win in sweeps all around for all three of our teams. What a great night for the Cowboys! We got back to the bus for a fun ride home - our cheerleaders had decked out the bus with celebration sodas, glow sticks and region champ signs saying, “way to glow!” It was a great finish to end our region play with another three team sweep for the year.
Next stop will be State Playoffs. Max Preps has Cowboys as the top ranking, but the UHSAA RPI calculation has us as the second seed by a fraction of a percentage. So, we will get a bye the first round and this upcoming weekend, October 28, we will head to Richfield to battle at the SVC center for a state title. The first game will be on Friday, against the 15th ranked team at Rowland Hall at 5:30 p.m., on court 2. If we keep winning, we will play two games each day on Friday and Saturday.
All are welcome, encouraged and invited to come cheer this fun team with big goals on at the SVC center in Richfield. You can also follow along for updates on UHSAA. org website.
Let’s Go Cowboys! Let’s go take care of our unfinished business!
