Five-Peat: Lone Peak survives epic semifinal, tops PG in finals for 6A title
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- The Lone Peak girls volleyball team raises the 6A championship trophy at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- The Lone Peak girls volleyball team celebrates winning the 6A state championship at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak’s Sam Pope (4) and Avery Nibley form a block against Pleasant Grove’s Aleah McDaniel in the 6A girls volleyball state finals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Pleasant Grove girls volleyball players console each other after losing a 3-1 decision to Lone Peak in the 6A girls volleyball finals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- The Lone Peak girls volleyball team celebrates winning the 6A state championship at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov, 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak’s Kyra Mahler (18) takes a swing against Mountain Ridge in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Avrie Valgardson (center) sets the ball in the 6A state championship match against Lone Peak at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Aleah McDaniel (17) reaches to block an attack from Lone Peak in the 6A girls volleyball state championship match at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak Nevaeh Tien (center) sets the ball during the 6A girls volleyball state championship match against Pleasant Grove at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Addisyn Beck serves the ball during the 6A girls volleyball state championship match against Lone Peak at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak girls volleyball fans react during the 6A state championship match against Pleasant Grove at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak’s Luhana Panta (36), McKynezee Beddes (50) and Ava Burgess (left) celebrate a point during the 6A girls volleyball state championship match against Pleasant Grove at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak girls volleyball fans react during the 6A state championship match against Pleasant Grove at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- The Lone Peak girls volleyball team celebrates a point during the 6A state championship match against Pleasant Grove at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak’s Ava Burgess prepares to serve in the 6A girls volleyball state championship match against Pleasant Grove at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Pleasant Grove girls volleyball fans react during the 6A state championship match against Lone Peak at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Aleah McDaniel (17) takes a swing against Lone Peak in the 6A girls volleyball state championship match at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Aleah McDaniel waits for the ball in the 6A girls volleyball state championship match against Lone Peak at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- The Pleasant Grove girls volleyball team celebrates a point at the 6A state championship semifinals against Corner Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Aleah McDaniel serves the ball in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals against Corner Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Marli Molina Vaea attacks the ball against Corner Canyon in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Avrie Valgardson (center) sets the ball against Corner Canyon in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- The Pleasant Grove girls volleyball team reacts to a point in the 6A state semifinals against Corner Canyon at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Taytum Nelson (left) and Aleah McDaniel set up a block against Corner Canyon in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- The Lone Peak girls volleyball team poses with the 6a state championship trophy at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- The Lone Peak girls volleyball team sings the school fight song with fans after winning the 6A state championship at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- The Lone Peak girls volleyball team celebrates winning the 6A state championship at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- The Lone Peak girls volleyball team celebrates winning the 6A state championship at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- The Lone Peak girls volleyball team celebrates winning the 6A state championship at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Members of the Skyridge girls volleyball team watches a match while waiting to play at the 6A state tournament at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak’s Hallie Layton (2) celebrates with teammates after scoring a point in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals against Mountain Ridge at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak’s Sam Pope sets the ball in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals against Mountain Ridge at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- The Lone Peak girls volleyball team celebrates an ace serve in the 6A semifinals against Mountain Ridge at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak’s Paris McKeehan serves the ball in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals against Mountain Ridge at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak’s McKynzee Beddes (50) takes a swing against Mountain Ridge in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak’s Nevaeh Tien passes the ball in the 5A girls volleyball semifinals against Mountain Ridge at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak’s Hallie Layton (2) and Kyra Mahler set up a block against Mountain Ridge in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- Lone Peak’s Nevaeh Tien serves the ball in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals against Mountain Ridge at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
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- The Lone Peak girls volleyball team forms a huddle in the 6A semifinals against Mountain Ridge at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.
One of the hardest magic acts to perform in volleyball is the reverse sweep.
Losing the first two out of five sets of any match puts you in some serious jeopardy, and that’s exactly where the No. 2 seed Lone Peak girls volleyball team found itself in the 6A semifinals Friday morning at the UCCU Center.
Somehow, the Knights climbed back into their match against No. 3 Mountain Ridge and won in five to advance to the title match a few hours later.
After that thrilling finish in the semis, the championship match must have seemed like a breeze.
Lone Peak dominated the first two sets against No. 1 Pleasant Grove, survived a Vikings comeback and won Set 4 to earn a 3-1 (25-19, 25-18, 14-25, 25-20) victory for the 6A title.
“It’s amazing,” said Knights sophomore Ava Burgess, who had a monster championship match with 20 kills, 20 digs and two blocks while hitting .300. “I don’t know, it’s so surreal. We’ve worked so hard for this moment. There was no doubt we could do it. I think we definitely earned this and we called for it.”
“Five-peat! Five-peat! Five-peat!” was the chant by the players after the match, and truly, the Knights have won five straight 6A championships. What’s unusual is that there have been three different coaches in that five-year streak: Reed Carlson (2020, 2021), Paula Jardine (2022, 2023) and now Matthew Moeai.
Championships just run in the blood in Highland.
“It’s the culture there,” Moeai said. “It’s the spirit there. They are great to the core.”
The Knights were pretty great in the championship match, getting out to big leads in the first two sets and cruising to victory. Pleasant Grove managed to right itself in Set 3, racing out to a 12-2 lead after a block from Taytum Nelson and Avrie Valgardson. The Vikings picked apart the Knights and eventually won it on a kill from Addisyn Beck to trail 2-1 in the match.
Pleasant Grove kept the momentum and battled to a 15-12 lead in the fourth set after an ace from Beck. But the Knights regrouped and took a 16-15 lead after a Burgess kill and an ace from Sam Pope. Lone Peak never lost the lead, though the Vikings stayed right at their heels. A big attack from McKynzee Beddes pushed the Knights advantage to 23-19 and a few plays later a strong play at the net resulted in the ball going down on Pleasant Grove’s side for the winner.
“I actually think that the semifinals helped us in the finals,” Lone Peak junior Nevaeh Tien said. “It just gave us such a boost of confident that this is what we can do. This is our potential of what we can do. To win five in a row is absolutely insane. We have such a strong and talented group of girls that just put in so much work. Our coaches were on us 24/7. I think everything we went through, it just paid off.
Since 2004, Lone Peak and Pleasant Grove have met ten times for large school classification titles, with the Knights winning seven. Friday was the 13th state title for Lone Peak. Winning five is a row is third best in state history, tied with San Juan and Snow Canyon. Rich has the record with eight straight titles and also won six in a row during another stretch.
“We were focusing on ourselves,” Burgess said. “When we come together as a team, we play so much better and we have so much more energy. We just continue to grow with each other and trust each other. Everyone has a job and if we trust each other to do it, then it will work out.”
For Burgess, she continues a family tradition at Lone Peak where sisters KJ (now at Oklahoma) and Zoey (Kansas) also won multiple state championships.
The Knights end the season with a record of 29-3. Pleasant Grove ends up at 28-4.
“The semifinals prepared us to play a tougher match,” Moeai said. “I think we had a more difficult route, but I would rather have been matched up with the harder schools. After they lost the first two sets, PG had their backs against the wall. They had nothing to lose so they turned it around to be the more aggressive team. We had to go back to being the aggressive team.”
CLASS 6A ROUNDUP
Lone Peak and No. 3 seed Mountain Ridge played the match of the tournament in the semifinals, with Knights pulling off an stunning reverse sweep to gain the finals. The Sentinels, riding the hot hand of senior Addyson Cook, came back from a 23-21 deficit to win the first set 26-24 and claimed the second set 25-17. Down 2-0, Lone Peak managed to hold on win Set 3, getting an alert dump attack from Tien and a kill from Beddes to take a 25-23 decision. The Knights edged past Mountain Ridge 26-24 in Set 4, the winner coming on a kill from middle Kyra Mahler to force a fifth set. The Sentinels raced out to a 4-1 lead but Lone Peak rallied to go ahead 6-5 on a Beddes swing. The Knights never trailed again, getting to match point at 14-8 on a kill from Mahler and Burgess tooled the block for the winner. It was only the second time all season Lone Peak had been pushed to five sets.
Pleasant Grove powered past No. 4 Corner Canyon 3-1 (25-22, 25-20, 22-25, 25-22) in the other semifinal on Friday morning. With the exception of the third set, which the Vikings trailed by eight points before rallying to within two, PG controlled the momentum and the match against the Chargers.
No. 7 seed Skyridge defeated No. 6 Bingham 3-1 (25-20, 18-25, 25-19) in consolation play and battled No. 5 Syracuse Friday afternoon, losing 2-1 (25-22, 21-25, 29-27) to finish in seventh place.
CLASS 5A ROUNDUP
No. 4 Salem Hills swept Region 7 foe and No. 8 seed Timpview 2-0 (25-10, 25-20) in consolation play and took care of No. 7 Brighton 2-0 (25-20, 25-16) to end up in fifth place.
No. 10 Spanish Fork topped No. 14 Alta 2-0 (25-14, 25-23) and defeated No. 9 Clearfield 2-0 (27-25, 28-26) to earn a sixth-place finish.
Last year’s state champion, No. 6-seed Maple Mountain, lost to No. 3 Woods Cross 3-0 (25-11, 25-22, 25-18) in a late quarterfinal match on Thursday. The Golden Eagles were eliminated by No. 7 Brighton 2-0 (25-21, 25-16) in consolation play on Saturday.
