MORGAN — “Pink Night” at Morgan High School is part volleyball game, part spectacle. And on Wednesday, the Trojans put on a show, knocking off Skyline in three sets, 25-23, 25-16, 25-14, in a warm-up for next weekend’s 3-A state tournament.
Before the match, the Trojans honored longtime team statistician and super fan Sherie Wright, who lost her battle with cancer in March. Between sets, there were dancers, an auction, a “pink parade,” and a raffle. Somewhere in there, a game of volleyball was played.
“This was awesome,” Morgan coach Liz Wiscombe said. “Unbelievable support from the community. I was just amazed at how many people were here. It shows great support not only for our volleyball team, but for the people in our community who are going through tough situations in their lives with cancer. And it shows a lot of support for Sherie. The people here just love her and would do anything for her. It was neat.”
Senior outside hitter Cassidee Lish led Morgan’s effort with 12 kills, 13 service points and 16 digs, while Katie Peterson added 12 digs and nine digs. Junior middle blocker McKenzie Schenk contributed a team-high 13 kills to go along with half a dozen digs and three aces. Libero Amanda Porter finished with 16 digs and 16 service points, including a pair of aces.
Perhaps most amazing was Kristi Rhead, whose gruesome foot injury during the summer was supposed to keep her out of the lineup all year. But she was bound and determined to get back on the court. She’s been playing for a couple of weeks now, but there she was on Wednesday, in the starting lineup, and making real contributions. On mostly one leg, she had 23 set assists, two digs, two solo blocks and two block assists.
“We love Kristi,” Porter said. “She’s come back and she’s doing awesome. When she was not well, she was so inspirational and so positive with us and kept us going. So having her back is great.”
The way the Trojans are playing, they’re setting themselves up for another deep run in the playoffs.
“It doesn’t matter who’s on the court,” Wiscombe said. “They support each other, they like each other and they’re working hard at practice. There are still things to work on, but everybody’s on board and we’re going to go after it. We’re gonna try to make another run. We’ll see where we end up.”
“We definitely have a lot of hard workers and we have lots of chemistry going on,” added Porter, who made a name for herself in last year’s tournament by barreling over a 10-gallon water cooler trying to save a point. “Plays like that are common for us. We’re going to go and give it our best. We don’t want to give up any points and we’re going to go after everything.”
Morgan concludes the regular season next week against 5-A heavyweight Lone Peak.
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