Kanab traveled to Piute on Tuesday, August 23, where all of our teams got a clean sweep. The frosh team won in three, JV followed suit and that put the varsity game starting really early for the night as our teams took care of business quickly. Varsity scores ended at 25-12, 25- 19 and 25-15.
Madi Orton and Livi Bundy came out with a fire to win. Orton led our team in kills having 12 for the night, Bundy with five and freshman Rylee Little contributed four. Bundy also brought two blocks and two serving aces.
Our setters Anna Cutler and Ashlyn Houston set their hitters up for kills getting 10 assists each.
London Fenus led the team in digs with 12, Anna Cutler with eight and Madi Orton with six.
Kanab passed the ball well to set up great offense opportunities, including standout performances from Fenus with 10, Houston with eight and Emilie Gilberg with seven. Great job to all three Kanab teams.
The Cowboys then went on to play in a very intense two-day tournament on August 26 and 27. Pool play teams were Panguitch, Carbon and Monticello. The Cowboys won all their games on Friday in best two out of three matches.
In the first game of the tournament, Kanab played well against Panguitch with very few errors. As a team we only had one serving error and pushed four aces. Both teams were great teams.
The second game in pool play against Panguitch came down to the very last point as it was capped at 27. The Cowboys fought until the very end and it paid off for the win. Scores ended at 25-23 and 27-26.
The next pool play team was Carbon, a tough 3A school The girls came out serving strong, keeping Carbon out of system. Kanab passed well as a team and set hitters up to put the ball away. And they did just that with 24 team kills versus Carbon’s 10. Kanab had 29 digs as a team and 21 assists with very minimal errors all the way around. Scores were 25-19 and 25-17.
The last game in pool play Kanab was assigned to play Monticello. Coach Houston said, “We have a lot of talent on this team but when they work together and get in their zone they are pretty intimidating and unstoppable.” That is exactly what happened. They worked together as a team and kept the scores against Monticello to 25- 13 and 25-17. As a team they put up 19 digs, 15 kills, 13 assists and five serving aces! It turned out to be a great first day for the Cowboys!
Saturday morning the Cowboys were given a cross over game that would determine if they would be placed in the Gold or Silver bracket for tournament play. It was against local 4A school Pineview. Pineview won the first set 25-20. The Cowboys tightened up their game and came back to win the next three: 25- 22, 25-14 and 25-22. As a team, Kanab brought 41 digs, 29 kills and eight serving aces. It was a fun game to watch the girls make adjustments, dig deeper and get the win to advance to the Gold bracket.
Kanab’s first Gold tournament game was against a 5A school, Murray. The Cowboys knew if they could get this win then they would get to advance to the championship game, so they battled hard. As a team they had 45 kills, 39 assists, 38 digs and nine serving aces. They were able to pull out three out of four sets to win the match 25-21, 15-25, 25-13 and 25-17, earning the team a spot in the championship game.
After the team went to get some lunch, they came back to watch Hurricane and Canyon View battle it out to see who would get to advance to the championship game. After five sets it was determined that Kanab would play Canyon View for the championship game.
Kanab came out really strong and got the first set 25-15. Canyon View made some adjustments and got on a serving roll. They won the next two sets 25- 19 and 25-16. Our starter got hurt in the second set, forcing her to come out of the game for injury and sitting out for the rest of the championship.
The Cowboys adjusted things too and battled back to win the fourth set 25-22. Canyon View served and hit really tough.
Kanab worked hard but came up just short of the win, giving up a few points in the end to communication errors. The fifth set ended 15-9 in Canyon View’s favor, earning Kanab second place in the Gold bracket.
All in all this was a great tournament for the Lady Cowboys! There were schools of every size and very competitive levels to compete against. Kanab has attended this tournament for years and this is the most successful outcome Kanab has had so far. Way to go Lady Cowboys for showing continual skill and team progress.
Come out and cheer this awesome team on this season! You won’t be disappointed.
