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Provo girls volleyball coach Stefanie Magalei (center) talks to her players in a time out during a match against Wasatch on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Provo's Meliana Chrisman (8) takes a swing against Wasatch in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Provo girls volleyball players celebrate scoring a point against Wasatch in a match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Provo's Nivale Magalei (1) takes a swing against Wasatch in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Provo's Nevaeh Magalei (left) finishes a swing against the Wasatch block in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Annie Cronauer of Wasatch serves the ball in a girls high school volleyball match against Provo on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Provo's Nevaeh Magalei takes a swing against Wasatch in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Macy Clark of Wasatch (18) passes the ball against Provo in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Provo's Meliana Chrisman (8) serves the ball against Wasatch in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Provo's Violet Betham (10) sets up teammate Meliana Chrisman against Wasatch in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Provo's Angelina Allison serves the ball against Wasatch in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Provo's Nivale Magalei (1) makes contact with an errant ball against Wasatch in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Provo's Nivale Magalei passes the ball against Wasatch in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Wasatch girls volleyball players celebrate scoring a point against Provo in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Provo's Lexi Carter serves the ball against Wasatch in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Provo's Meliana Chrisman (8) and her sister, Mila (18) rise up for a block against Wasatch in a high school girls volleyball match on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

❮ ❯

Provo girls volleyball coach Stefanie Magalei doesn’t care much for labels.

The Bulldogs roster lists the usual positions — libero, setter, outside hitter, middle blocker, etc. — but Magalei prefers to teach every skill to everyone.

She simply wants them to be volleyball players.

That approach has worked well for Provo, which finished sixth at the 4A state tournament last season and moved to 6-0 in 2026 with a 3-1 (24-26, 25-19, 25-12, 25-16) Region 8 victory against Wasatch on Tuesday.

“We have a lot of athletes,” Magalei said. “You can tell if you watch us. We have a lot of girls passing, a lot of girls setting and a lot of girls hitting. We have a lot of tools in the toolbox and so I think that makes us less predictable, and I love that.

“When I took over the program my goal was to keep the best athletes on the floor. Figuring out how to do that means that you might have to set for a few rotations, or you might have to pass. We train every kid in our program to do everything because you never know what you’re going to be asked to do.”

The statistics from the win on Tuesday are a perfect example of that versatility. Seniors Meliana Chrisman and Nevaeh Magalei (the coach’s daughter) both logged an unusual volleyball triple double. Chrisman totaled 19 kills (hitting .349) with 15 assists and 10 digs. Magalei, who was second in the state last year with 578 kills, finished the match with 18 kills, 11 assists and 17 digs.

“We always have this mentality of ‘Whatever it takes,'” Nevaeh Magalei said. “Whatever it takes means what can I do to help the team win or get better? For that, we always flex in and out of different positions. Even if you’re a libero, but we need you to play outside or setter, whatever we need you to do to help our team get the next point or win.”

Nevaeh Magalei is an undersized outside hitter at 5-foot-8 who actually plays libero for her club team.

“I use my shots,” Magalei said. “So even being an undersized outside, I use my court awareness. Where is the open spot on the court? What can I do? Both me and my younger sister (freshman Nivale Magalei) are liberos in club. In high school we play outside. This gives us a different point of view on what our outsides need, or when we’re playing outside, what we need from our back row or our setter.”

The Bulldogs had a rough start in Set 1 against Wasatch.

“I’ve told our girls this year is about what we do about our errors,” Coach Magalei said. “In the first set, we had 18 errors. It’s not very much fun trying to beat a team to 25 when you give them 18 of the points.”

Provo still managed to tie the set at 24 on a Nevaeh Magalei kill but an error pushed Wasatch on top 25-24 and the Wasps blocked a Bulldogs attack at set point for the 26-24 win.

“It was a very slow start,” Coach Magalei said. “We were missing two of our starters and hadn’t run those rotations so we had to work through some of the dysfunctions. But we have good senior leadership on our team.”

Chrisman got going early in Set 2 with four kills and Provo jumped out to an 14-8 lead. A Nevaeh Magalei ace and a Chrisman swing pushed the Bulldogs to a 22-13 advantage and two kills from Magalei finished off a 25-19 victory.

The Bulldogs kept that momentum through the third and fourth set and cruised to their third straight Region 7 win.

Coach Magalei said the goal is to be in the top three seeds heading into this season’s state tournament.

“We brought back a ton (from last season) and we have a fierce freshman class,” she said. “I’ve just always loved and appreciated Provo because there’s just a lot of gratitude. There’s a lot of grateful kids and we have a phenomenal support system behind us with our parents, our fans and our administration. Our girls are just hungry. They’re excited to be here every day and I’ll coach the heck out of them.”

Nivale Magaeli contributed 20 digs and seven kills, Violet Betham had 21 assists and Angelina Allison added three aces for the Bulldogs, who will participate in the Utah Valley Invitational at UVU this weekend.

Annie Cronauer, a 6-4 junior, led Wasatch (6-4 overall, 1-2 Region 7) with 10 kills and seven total blocks (two solo). The Wasps play Summit Academy next Tuesday.