Maple Mountain starts fast, knocks off Timpview 3-1 in Region 7 girls volleyball
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- Maple Mountain’s Brynlee Poulson (right) sets the ball to a teammate during a Region 7 girls volleyball match against Timpview on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
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- The Maple Mountain girls volleyball team celebrates a point during a Region 7 match against Timpview on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
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- Timpview’s Shiloah Maunga Young (6) passes the ball during a Region 7 girls volleyball match against Maple Mountain on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
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- Timpview’s Samara Hopoate (15) and Kirsten Hoelzer rise up to block a swing from Maple Mountain’s Emily Van Ginkel during a Region 7 girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
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- The Timpview girls volleyball team celebrates on point during a Region 7 match against Maple Mountain on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
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- Timpview Livia Eyre (center) takes a swing against Maple Mountain in a Region 7 girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
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- Maple Mountain’s Karli Smith (3) takes a swing against the Timpview block during a Region 7 girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
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- Timpview’s Samara Hopoate sets the ball to a teammate during a Region 7 girls volleyball match against Maple Mountain on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
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- The Maple Mountain girls volleyball team gathers around head coach Adam Longmore during a Region 7 match against Timpview on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
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- Maple Mountain’s Aliyah Marks serves the ball against Timpview in a Region 7 girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
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- Maple Mountain’s Emily Van Ginkel (26) blocks a ball during a Region 7 girls volleyball match against Timpview on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
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- Timpview’s Hailey Hall serves the ball in a Region 7 girls volleyball match against Maple Mountain on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
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- Timpview’s Samara Hopoate serves against Maple Mountain in a Region7 girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.
Nobody had been able to beat the Timpview girls volleyball team in over a month.
The T-Birds had rolled to eight straight victories, including a five-set win against Maple Mountain in Spanish Fork on Sept. 12.
On Tuesday night in Provo, the Golden Eagles got their revenge and handed Timpview its first region loss as well.
Maple Mountain started aggressively and kept up the pace all match long, taking a 25-20, 26-24, 20-25, 25-21 victory with a balanced attack and key defensive plays.
Golden Eagles coach Adam Longmore said this group is unlike any team he’s coached at the school, mainly because it takes every player on the roster to be successful.
“We’re a better team now,” Longmore said. “We’re developing the personality of the team, and I think we are a stronger team in every sense of the word (since earlier the loss to Timpview). Every team battles adversity and adversity can come in a lot of different ways. This team has had to do some soul searching in terms of our identity and what kind of team we’re going to be.”
Leading two sets to one, Maple Mountain looked to close out the match in Set 4 and led by eight, 17-9, on an ace serve from Aliyah Marks. Timpview managed to find a good rhythm and got to within one, 21-20, on a kill from Shiloah Maunga Young. The Golden Eagles responded with a 3-0 run, including a kill from Hailey Clark, a smart play at the net by junior setter Brynlee Poulson and an ace from co-captain Coco Denison, to get to match point at 24-20. At second match point, the Timpview serve sailed long and Maple Mountain had their victory.
“I think we came into it with a lot of energy, like coming in as the underdogs,” Poulson said. “It was like we wanted to prove ourselves at their place and just show that we were better than what we were. We came into warmups with a lot of anticipation, and we were ready to go at it.”
Set 1 was tied at 10 when Maple Mountain made a move with Marks at the service line, taking a 16-10 advantage on a kill from Clark. The Golden Eagles led by as many as nine points, 22-13, after a dump attack from Poulson. Timpview rallied behind the serving of Young and pulled within four at 22-18. But after a long rally, Tenley Smithson’s tip found the mark for Maple Mountain set point, and Smithson did it again on the next serve for a 25-20 victory.
Timpview got out fast in Set 2 and took a 14-8 lead on an ace by Madeline Van Brederode. But Maple Mountain got steady and trailed just 22-20 on a block from Clark. The T-Birds got to set point after an ace by Hailey Hall but the Golden Eagles scored the final six points of the set, getting a pair of kills from Karli Smith and an ace from Smithson to take tie the set at 24. A pair of Timpview hitting errors pushed Maple Mountain to the 26-24 victory and a 2-0 lead in the match.
The T-Birds led early in Set 3 and Maple Mountain had to chase the score the whole way. An ace from Smithson brought the Golden Eagles to within one, 14-13, but that was as close as they would get as Livia Eyre started to find her range offensively. An Eyre kill got the Timpview to 22-19 and a long rally ended when Eyre set the ball to an open spot on the Maple Mountain side. A hitting error on the Golden Eagles ended it at 25-20 for the T-Birds to force the fourth set.
“There are ebbs and flows to the season and there are ebbs and flows in every match,” Longmore said. “We’re dealing better with those and that’s something we struggled with earlier in the season.”
Maple Mountain (16-8 overall, 6-2 Region 7) has a match at Springville on Oct. 22 after the fall break.
Timpview (14-5, 8-1), which hadn’t tasted defeat since a 3-2 loss to Syracuse on Sept. 7, is off for fall break as well and will play at Salem Hills on Oct. 22.
