‘The Resuscitator’ leads Pleasant Grove to upset of Lone Peak
- The Pleasant Grove volleyball team celebrates a point during a Region 4 match with Lone Peak on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. (Darnell Dickson/Daily Herald)
- The Pleasant Grove student section cheers during introductions at a volleyball match against Lone Peak on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. (Darnell Dickson/Daily Herald)
- Lone Peak’s Jayda Tupea (center) dances onto the court with her parents during the Senior Night ceremony in Highland on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. (Darnell Dickson/Daily Herald)
- Lone Peak’s Camilla Pugh (3) and K.J. Burgess rise up to block a Pleasant Grove attack during a volleyball match on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. (Darnell Dickson/Daily Herald)
- The Lone Peak volleyball team celebrates a point during a match against Pleasant Grove on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. (Darnell Dickson/Daily Herald)
- Pleasant Grove coach Kimberly Hawkey talks to her team before the start of a volleyball match at Lone Peak on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. (Darnell Dickson/Daily Herald)
In preparation for Tuesday’s big Region 4 volleyball match with Lone Peak, Pleasant Grove coach Kimberly Hawkey told her girls to get to every ball and not let one drop.
That kind of effort was personified by senior libero Avery Fowler, who should be nicknamed, “The Resuscitator” because she keeps so many plays alive. Fowler and her teammates rode that effort to a huge 3-2 victory (25-22, 25-27, 25-20, 19-25, 15-11) against the Knights in Highland.
The win not only earned the Vikings a tie for the Region 4 title with Lone Peak but also ended the Knights’ 14-match winning streak, which included two wins over PG.
“You know, we went after every single ball,” Hawkey said. “We’ve been working on that a lot in practice, just pursuing every ball and they did that tonight. Ultimately, we outhustled them and that was what we wanted to do.”
Fowler was all over the floor with her specialty, which helped keep the Vikings in system and other times simply saved their bacon to prevent a Lone Peak score.
“Avery is a ball of energy,” Hawkey said. “She did a fantastic job tonight. That’s what we needed from her.”
It’s doubtful on the final night of the regular season there was a more competitive and better played high school volleyball match anywhere in Utah. The two teams kept throwing haymakers at each other, much to the delight of the large crowd that filled Lone Peak Fieldhouse on Tuesday for Senior Night.
“There was so much intensity from both teams,” Fowler said. “Honestly, I just play with my heart. I play for my teammates and I know they do the same for me. I just have that mentality of not being selfish about it and I know I need to be intense about the game.”
In the fifth set, Pleasant Grove took a 5-4 lead on a Sadie Scoville kill and were never headed. Lone Peak stayed close and pulled to within 9-8 on a block from K.J. Burgess but the Vikings scored four straight points with two kills from Ashley Gneiting, including a well-placed roll shot and a kill off the block. Fowler’s timely ace pushed the lead to 13-9. Lone Peak closed to 13-11 on a couple of PG errors but a service error got the visitors to match point. Gneiting, who sprained her ankle earlier in the match but returned to play a key role, got the winner on her second swing for the 15-11 victory and the match.
“This win was really good for us because it gives us a lot of confidence going into state,” Fowler said. “We saw that we could beat them and we’ve been so close with them every time.”
Emeline Hudson’s kill tied a close Set 1 at 22 but the Vikings scored the next three points, including a clever wipe off the block by Scoville, for a 25-22 win.
The Knights led Set 2 early but it quickly turned into another dogfight. The set was tied at 22, 23, 24 and 25 before Lone Peak grabbed a 26-25 lead on a middle attack from Zoey Burgess. A PG hitting ended it in the Knights favor at 27-25.
Pleasant Grove took advantage of a pair of Lone Peak errors to stretch its lead in Set 3 to 22-19. Scoville got the kill to push the set to 24-20 and a tandem block by Noelle Crawley and Hannah Olsen was the winner at 25-20, giving the visitors a 2-1 lead in the match.
Lone Peak took control midway through Set 4 and extended its lead to 18-12 after a PG hitting error. The Knights cruised to the end and won 25-19 to set up the decisive Set 5.
Pleasant Grove finished the regular season with a 19-8 overall record and 9-1 in Region 4. Lone Peak is 23-5 overall and also 9-1 in Region 4.
Final Class 6A RPI and state tournament pairings will be announced Thursday morning. The state tournament begins next Tuesday (Nov. 2) with first round matches at home sites. The rest of the tournament will be held at Utah Valley’s UCCU Center Nov. 4 and 6.














