High school girls volleyball: Woods Cross stays undefeated in 5-set thriller

Woods Cross stayed perfect in its early season, going the distance and handing Lone Peak its first loss of the season in a five-set thriller 25-20, 13-25, 25-19, 23-25, 12-15.

Woods Cross dropped the opening set, in large part to the nerves that the team was trying to play through out of the gate.

“We had a lot of nerves to start out. There’s a lot of relationships on both sides of the court, so this game was hyped up in the girls’ heads a little bit, so we just needed to settle down, but we expected this type of game,” said Woods Cross head coach Nicole Hogan.

Lone Peak showed up ready to play and handled the first set against Woods Cross with ease. While her team wasn’t able to grab the opening set, Hogan believes that the run her team went on towards the end and the way they finished the set helped give the team some much needed momentum as the match progressed.

“I called some early timeouts, and I just told them whatever we do at the end of this set is going to carry into the second set. That’s all we were doing at that point was fighting for momentum. I think that really helped us out. I was happy with the run we went on at the end of the first set, even though we didn’t end up taking that one,” added Hogan.

The early timeouts proved beneficial, with the visitors taking the second set and evening the match up at one set apiece.

The two teams would go back and forth in a hard-fought and tightly contested battle, with the teams alternating set wins going into the final set.

In a match that saw many lead changes and mini runs, Woods Cross went on a 6-1 run at the end of the final frame to seal the victory.

With just one game left before region play starts, Hogan knew that playing in such a hard-fought and contested match will any benefit her team as the season pushes forward.

“Our region is so tough. I have preached and preached and preached in the gym that they will never get to just show up in the gym and rollover an opponent. Going into tonight I really loved that it was such a tough match,” said Hogan. “I’d rather win in five and have to battle through ups and down than ever win in three to be honest. This will no doubt make us a better team.”