By GANNON HANEVOLD
Moapa Valley Progress
After a huge season last year, the Moapa Valley High School Volleyball team has set out to reach the promised land this year. But every season starts somewhere. For this year’s band of Pirates, it began in St. George, Utah, as the Pirates traveled to Dixie’s yearly tournament and took on various schools.
The two day tournament involved two separate pools. And the Pirates were able to impress from the beginning.
Their first game would be a 2-0 victory over the Corner Canyon (UT) JV squad. Riding that momentum, the Pirates went on to defeat Duchesne as well to move to 2-0 on their first day.
However, as their evening came to a close, the Pirates played a closely competitive match with Richfield (UT). Ultimately, Richfield got the best of Moapa in the third set. But the Pirates would still seed second in their pool and make it into a high pool for Saturday.
The Pirates started the day strong again on Saturday, defeating Emory (UT) in a two game sweep.
In their second game, Moapa Valley would play a team that head coach Mandie Matheson called the “best defensive team the girls faced.” That team would be Uintah (UT), whom the Pirates forced into a third set. Uintah would get the victory in the end, dropping the Pirates to 1-1 in their second pool.
In their third pool game on Saturday, the Pirates rambled through Cedar, sweeping the Redmen 2-0.
“I thought the girls, based on the fact they were brand new playing with each other, showed a lot of grit and determination and played overall really well,” Matheson said.
However, after six games in less than 36 hours, and a late night separating the two days, Matheson could see the team fading a bit. To add onto that, the Pirates were given a two hour break before their first tournament game.
“On Saturday I thought they came in and played really well but you could feel the energy starting to go,” Matheson said.
In their first single elimination tournament game in the gold bracket, the Pirates took on Kanab and fell. It was an all around poor performance for Moapa and Matheson had higher expectations for her team.
“In volleyball, there’s the old saying that if you can’t pass, you can’t play,” she said. “That was us. We were just mentally fatigued because we had passed well all day long. We couldn’t get anything running. There’s no excuses but I believe that was a factor.”
This year’s team features a rare drive to success that is hard to find in many high school student athletes. Despite this being just the first tournament of the year, Matheson said that was evident.
“I saw some grit and some drive that lifted them when sometimes our size was affecting us,” she said. “They dug deep and used their heart which gives me a lot of hope for the season. We know we have a long road ahead and have to get better defensively, but to see the effort there was the high point.”
