6A Girls Volleyball: No. 1 Skyridge secures finals berth
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- The Skyridge girls volleyball team celebrates winning a 6A state semifinal match against Syracuse at the UCCU Center on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025.
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- Haydn Smith (2) and Lily Lundberg put up a block against Syracuse in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals at the UCCU Center on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025.
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- Skyridge senior Haydn Smith (2) takes a swing against Syracuse in the 6A girls volleyball semifinals at the UCCU Center on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025.
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- The Skyridge girls volleyball team celebrates winning a 6A state semifinal match against Syracuse at the UCCU Center on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025.
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- Skyridge girls volleyball players on the bench celebrate a point in a 6A state semifinal match against Syracuse at the UCCU Center on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025.
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- The Skyridge girls volleyball team celebrates winning a 6A state semifinal match against Syracuse at the UCCU Center on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025.
The Skyridge girls volleyball team doesn’t just have belief.
They have “big belief.”
That commitment to positivity has propelled the No. 1 seed Falcons into the 6A state title match.
Skyridge overcame a tough third set and a very good Syracuse team in Thursday’s semifinals at the UCCU Center, powering through to take a 3-1 (25-19, 25-19, 16-25, 25-21) victory.
“Before the match we just talked about the girls having their biggest belief, not just that they would win, but the big belief in each set, each point and each skill, making it as specific as possible,” Falcons coach Tayler Hifo said. “Because that belief is going to carry us. It showed in the way they played. That’s the best I’ve seen them play together all season and they had confidence in each other.”
The 6A finals between No. 1 Skyridge (27-2) and No. 2 Corner Canyon (24-6) is the rubber match between the two Region 3 foes. The Falcons earned a 3-0 sweep on the road Sept. 11 and the Chargers took a 3-2 decision in Lehi on Oct. 2.
Corner Canyon swept No. 3 Mountain Ridge 25-20, 25-9, 25-10 in the other semifinal matchup.
The championship match was slated to start at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, after the Daily Herald’s print deadline.
Skyridge seniors Haydn Smith (15 kills) and Kylie Buttars (18) were the offensive force for the Falcons against No. 5 Syracuse, with Smith drawing attention early and Buttars punishing Syracuse in the latter part of the match. Senior setter Lily Grant set a brilliant match, putting up plenty of hittable balls for Smith and Buttars as well as scoring on crafty dump attacks.
“I’ve been working with her on different dumps and trying to score,” said Hifo, a former BYU setter. “I mean, she had like seven or eight kills and that’s really awesome for a setter. And Haydn has gotten so much better over the season. I’ve loved seeing her growth.”
Syracuse has a unique attack with a pair of left-handed pin hitters in sisters Brinley and McKinley Barkdull, who combined for 27 kills and kept the Skyridge defense guessing by mixing up their attacks.
Smith’s early swings had the Falcons cruising through the first two sets but the Barkdull sisters got going and the Titans took over momentum in Set 3, using a 6-0 run in the middle of the set to take a 16-10 lead on their way to a 25-16 win.
“We knew it was going to be a fight,” Hifo said. “We knew they (Syracuse) weren’t going to go down easy. We were going to fight to the end, no matter how long it took.”
Set 4 was tied at 11-11 when Skyridge scored three straight points, including a massive block by Smith and Lucy Meck on McKinley Barkdull for a 14-11 lead. Buttars dominated over the next few minutes, blasting two kills out of the back row as the Falcons moved out to a 20-16 lead. Three straight points on a Smith kill, an ace from libero Estelle Slaney and another Buttars kill made the score 23-19. At 24-21, Buttars pounded another scorcher for the win.
“Our team is so ready to go play for the championship,” Smith said. “Our confidence is definitely really high. We have so much belief going on and we play as a team. Everybody lifts each other up. The people make this team special, everyone supporting each other and cheering each other on.”
