Legacy of winning: New girls volleyball coach Casey Adams has next at Lone Peak
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- Lone Peak girls volleyball coach Casey Adams, left, consults with assistant Silver Fonua during a match against Pleasant Grove on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Lone Peak girls volleyball players celebrate a point during a match against Pleasant Grove on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Lone Peak’s Brooke Christopherson, left, celebrates a point with teammate Neaeh Tien in a high school girls volleyball match against Pleasant Grove on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Kayln Bishop serves against Lone Peak in a high school girls volleyball match on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- New Lone Peak girls volleyball coach Casey Adams on the sidelines during a match against Pleasant Grove on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Pleasant Grove girls volleyball coach Isa Takahashi watches the action during a match against Lone Peak on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Lone Peak’s Ava Burgess tips over the Pleasant Grove block during a high school girls volleyball match on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Pleasant Grove girls volleyball players celebrate a point during a match against Lone Peak on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Lone Peak’s Luhanna Panta serves against Pleasant Grove in a high school girls volleyball match on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Lone Peak’s Madi Rich takes a swing against Pleasant Grove in a high school girls volleyball match on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Pleasant Grove girls volleyball students react during a match against Lone Peak on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Kaitlin Stadler serves against Lone Peak in a high school girls volleyball match on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Marli Vaea takes a swing against Lone Peak on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Kaitlin Stadler digs a ball during a high school girls volleyball match against Lone Peak on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Addie Pace (1) is introduced before the start of a high school girls volleyball match against Lone Peak on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
All Lone Peak girls volleyball does is win championships … and lately, replace coaches.
The Knights have won five straight 6A state titles with three different coaches: Reed Carlson (2020-2021), Paula Jardine (2022-2023) and last year with Matthew Moea’i. Now Casey Adams steps into the pressure cooker to try to make it six consecutive gold trophies.
“There’s pressure to represent the program the way it deserves,” Adams said. “It’s such a great program. These girls are so good, they’re so talented and they compete so hard. There’s pressure to live up to their level and that’s the pressure I feel. Not the coaches or the championships, but the level of these girls.”
Adams said he last coached at the high school level in 2002 at Judge Memorial. He has experience playing beach volleyball and played club volleyball when he attended the University of Utah law school but said he really learned to love the game by taking a class under former Olympic coach Hugh McCutcheon at BYU.
“I’ve had wonderful volleyball teachers,” Adams said. “I’ve done the high school coaching thing and I’ve coached club. I’ve been around, I just don’t usually get into the head coaching role very often. I was helping Coach Moea’i with fundraising. When he left, I was the only staff member still around.”
Adams said his first phone call was to Silver Fonua, a veteran high school coach who recently stepped down at Skyridge.
“Silver and I have been friends for 30 years,” Adams said. “He was my first call and my second was to Jackie Loser, who’s coached for a decade as well in high school.”
Both Fonua and Loser joined the Lone Peak staff for the 2025 season.
Knights senior outside hitter Ava Burgess is working with her third high school volleyball coach in four seasons.
“It was a little sad at first (when Moea’i left) but Casey just believes in us so much,” Burgess said. “The transition has been so good. He really just wants the best for us. He’s really made a positive impact because he’s such an uplifting person and he’s really good for our program.”
On Thursday, Lone Peak swept Pleasant Grove 25-20, 25-21, 25-19 on the strength of serving runs in the first and third sets. The Knights scored seven straight points with junior libero Luhanna Panta at the service line to go from down 8-7 to leading 14-8 in Set 1. Lone Peak led 24-20 on a pair of kills from Burgess and a PG net violation was the winner at 25-20.
Pleasant Grove led 10-7 in Set 2 but the Knights surged ahead and took a 21-16 lead on a kill from Brooke Christoffersen. Lauren Adams tipped over the Vikings block for a 23-18 and at set point a PG hitting error made it 25-21, giving the Lone Peak a 2-0 lead in the match.
Molly Mitchell’s kill pushed Pleasant Grove to a 16-14 lead in Set 3 but Burgess took control at the service line and Lone Peak scored eight straight points, highlighted by a pair of kills from Alexa Warner and an ace from Burgess for a 22-16 lead. At second match point, Maisie White tooled a shot off the PG block for the 25-19 win and the match.
Burgess led Lone Peak with 10 kills and 10 digs, Christoffersen had nine kills and Madi Rich added eight. Panta contributed 19 digs and three service aces and senior setter Nevaeh Tien dished out 29 assists.
“This team is incredibly resilient,” Coach Adams said. “They are mentally tough and it takes a lot to put us away. Even when we’re playing badly, we recover and stay in matches. We find ways to get points and we start generating our own momentum.
“I think this team is great at handling pressure and they have the potential to win a state championship. They have a lot of work and growing to do. We lost an all-state outside hitter from last year, we lost an all-state setter and we lost two all-state middles. But the girls are stepping up. They’ll learn, develop and grow. The potential is there but they have to earn it.”
Lone Peak (3-1) hosts Brighton next Tuesday and will test itself at the Durango Fall Classic beginning Sept. 19.
Pleasant Grove, which moved down from Class 6A to Class 5A, has played a challenging schedule and is now 1-4 and continues its difficult non-conference slate at 6A Skyridge on Tuesday.
