| Carbon High senior Courtney Young bumps the ball during a league game earlier this season. Carbon will be counting on it’s experience in the state tournament to get them to the number one spot in the state. |
Starting Thursday it’s UEA weekend. Deer hunters are still harvesting animals in some parts of the state. On Saturday night everyone has to set their clocks back one hour to put the area back on standard time. This weekend Halloweeners will be going out in force to collect their candy.
And it’s 3A state volleyball tournament time.
It seems each year all those things come together on the same weekend. But this year could be just a little different than the last three years. Carbon High School’s girls volleyball team could win it all, something they have come close to for so long, but have always been denied.
The three teams that went to state since 2000 have had more notoriety than this team and bigger stars in terms of name recognition, but this years team has something those squads never had.
They’re undefeated.
In fact they’re not only undefeated in every set they’ve played this year, they haven’t lost a single game in running to a 8-0 Region 8 record and a 15-0 overall score.
There is only one other team in the 3A classification that has as good a record and that is Morgan High School. Not a good feeling for Carbon fans when they hear that name, because they beat Carbon in two of those three years for the title.
But last year, when Morgan lost in the semi-finals to North Sanpete, it gave the Dinos something they can count on.
Morgan can be beat in the state tournament.
After all the tries it was a Region 8 rival of Carbon’s that beat the Lady Trojans. That Lady Hawk victory looked good to Carbon because they had split their region home and home games with North Sanpete.
But in the championship game things went wrong, Carbon went up 2-0 and were ahead in game three when the Lady Hawks came back and took three straight, once again cutting a great Carbon squad out of first place again.
This year, however, things have been different, so far anyway. North Sanpete is ranked fifth in the state and Carbon defeated the kids from over the mountain easily each time they met.
Once again Carbon is in the opposite bracket from Morgan (10-0 and 19-0) because of their placement would not meet them unless they both get to the finals.
However, as in all sports there are other stumbling blocks as well. Both Pineview and Wasatch are strong too, both with 9-1 records. Wasatch, which Carbon defeated in the preseason, is in Morgan’s bracket. Pineview, is in the lower bracket with Carbon, and is probably the biggest threat to the Lady Dinos in their quest for a title.
Obviously Carbon has had one of the best programs in the state in the last few years, and that is attributable to great coaching (Bruce Bean) and good programs at lower levels that develop the players, such as at Helper and Mont Harmon Junior High Schools.
The quest begins on Friday at 12:30 p.m. when Carbon meets Hurricane (5-5) in an opening round game at Utah Valley State College’s David Mckay Center.
If the Lady Dinos get by the Tigers, they will then play again that same day at 5 p.m. facing either Bear River or Park City.
Although Carbon did not face the Lady Bears this year in pre-season they did defeat Park City 25-18, 25-12 and 25-20.
The finals will be held Saturday night, and Carbon only has to have three more wins to get to that game.
Then they just might be able to come up with that elusive title they have been seeking for so long.