| Meesha Rasmussen (22) and Danielle Martino (22) go up for a block during the Lady Dinos victory over North Sanpete on Tuesday night. |
There are a lot of reasons why Sanpete and Carbon county don’t care for each other much.
Politics, religion, water.
Now add volleyball to that list.
Tuesday night the Carbon high volleyball team took away the undefeated regular season from the North Sanpete Lady Hawks and probably their second place ranking in the state as well, defeating the Mount Pleasant team 3-2 in a series of hotly contested games that made the Dinogym roar.
And it also healed the scar of a searing loss to North Sanpete earlier in the season that has put a cloud over state aspirations this year.
The Lady Dinos were in a position they haven’t been in during the regular season for years; being the underdogs. They had not been in second place in the league in half a decade.
There is no doubt about it however, the Lady Hawks are very good. Morgan, who again is running its gauntlet through Region 10 with ease again this year and was runners up to Carbon at the state tournament last year, may well take heed of these two teams that are battling it out down here in eastern Utah. Both could match the Lady Trojans power.
But it wasn’t easy for the Dinos as they came out in the first game and it was close. At about the 25 mark it just came down to the score wavering back and forth with no one able to gain the two point advantage to win.
However, North Sanpete, more than likely knowing that they defeated Carbon on their home floor, drew up the strength to gain victory at 29-27.
The Sanpete part of the crowded gym went nuts, while the Carbon side assessed their feelings about the loss.
However, true to championship Carbon came back in the second game, with leads as large as six points. Yet they couldn’t quite snuff out the Lady Hawks. Tied at 20, Carbon rallied and took the second game 25-22.
It was now even, but Carbon felt they had enacted a change of direction, a change for the better.
But that change didn’t show up right away. Sanpete went up 6-0 on the Carbonites, and that made coming back hard. While coming closed to punching the Lady Hawks out at the end of the game, a couple of missed chances for spikes put the Carbon team down 2-1.
Bleak it was for Carbon, who now had to win two straight to regain the region lead.
Somehow, somewhere, with great coaching and gutty performances they did it. They kept it close all through the fourth game, and survived the Lady Hawks awesome spikes for a 25-22 victory.
In the fifth and deciding contest, the one where death comes quick at 15, the Carbon girls perfected the short game coming out with their biggest margin of the night with a 15-11 win.
Emotions flowed from the crowd and from the players. Sanpete too had a lot of emotion, but it was with long faces rather than happy ones.
Carbon now stands tied with the Sanpete crowd for the Region 8 lead with a 7-1 record. They have games left against Emery tonight (Thursday) in Castle Dale and Juan Diego in the Dinogym next Tuesday.
Then, as tradition has it, the Dinos will be going to state. What transpires in the last couple of weeks with North Sanpete facing Juan Diego tonight and then next Tuesday, Delta, will tell a lot. A loss by the Lady Hawks and wins by Carbon would put the Lady Dinos in first seed. If both teams win it could come down to a coin toss, which has plagued Carbon in the past.
Only time and great play will tell.