6A playoffs: Farmington sweeps Roy in 1st round, ending Royals’ resurgent season
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- Farmington’s Lydia Schwemmer digs the ball during a 6A first-round volleyball playoff match against Roy on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, at Roy High School.
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- Roy teammates Jessie Funk (16) and Sierra Jones (14) embrace during a 6A first-round volleyball playoff match against Farmington on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, at Roy High School.
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- Farmington players cheer during a 6A first-round volleyball playoff match against Roy on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, at Roy High School.
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- Roy’s Nelly Arenas (3) digs the ball as teammate Jessie Funk looks on during a 6A first-round volleyball playoff match against Farmington on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, at Roy High School.
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- Farmington’s Sophie Wendt serves during a 6A first-round volleyball playoff match against Roy on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, at Roy High School.
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- Roy High’s Jessie Funk sets the ball during a 6A first-round volleyball playoff match against Farmington on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, at Roy High School.
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- Farmington’s Jocelyn McQuivey serves during a 6A first-round volleyball playoff match against Roy on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, at Roy High School.
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- Roy High’s Kya Sayachith (5) rises to hit the ball as teammates Jayna Rogers (22) and Chloe Cummins (30) look on during a 6A first-round volleyball playoff match against Farmington on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, at Roy High School.
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- Roy’s Jessie Funk (16) sets the volleyball as Farmington’s Annie Peck (15) looks on during a 6A first-round playoff match Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, at Roy High School.
ROY — Farmington High’s volleyball season has been all sorts of up and (mostly) down from the time games started in mid-August. Tuesday night brought a match for the Phoenix that was only up.
Farmington, the No. 18 seed in the 6A state tournament, led early and often as the Phoenix swept No. 15 Roy High 25-11, 25-15, 25-15 in the first round of the state playoffs. Farmington advances to Thursday’s second round at Utah Valley University.
The Phoenix (8-13) breezed through the first set, turned around an early deficit in the second and pulled away from an early challenge in the third.
“We had lots of fun and I feel like when we’re playing together as a team and having fun that’s when we do our best,” FHS senior Alysa Whitney said.
Tuesday night was Roy’s first home volleyball playoff game since 1997, a result of the Royals’ best season in many years. Roy (14-9) earned the No. 15 seed in the state playoffs.
“I’m so proud of these girls, that was the speech I just gave my — I’m going to get emotional again,” Roy coach Madi Robins said. Robins continued by crediting the team for the good season it accomplished.
The Royals were newcomers to the Salt Lake County-based Region 2 this year and finished second place in the region with a 10-2 mark after years of finishing either last or second-to-last in Regions 1 and 5.
“The biggest thing that we’ve really focused on is pushing a lot of the toxicity in sports out of sports, and they’ve mainly focused on building a relationship with each other on the court, and they really did,” Robins said.
Roy had won 12 matches in the previous 10 seasons combined, which included three winless campaigns, according to MaxPreps. The Royals got to 12 wins in this season when they swept Cyprus at home two weeks ago.
“The girls really, truly put in the work to learn the game of volleyball and just become the best at it that they could and they played their hearts out,” Robins said.
Farmington took a 7-1 lead in the first set on the back of strong hitting and some Roy errors.
The lead got to 9-2 before Roy reeled off some points on Kya Sayachith’s serve to cut the Farmington lead to 10-5.
The Phoenix won a long point to go up 15-6 and by the time Roy got to 10 in the first set, FHS led 21-10 and closed out the set shortly thereafter.
“It’s nice. It feels so good to know that your hard work is paying off,” Whitney said about the team winning a playoff game.
Farmington plays again Thursday in the second round of the state tournament at Utah Valley University against No. 2 Syracuse, who swept the Phoenix in both the teams’ Region 1 games this year.
Roy jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second set with a couple big hits by Jayna Rogers, but Farmington quickly made it 8-5 and forced a timeout.
Farmington’s lead was 13-11 in the more-competitive second set before a Roy hitting error, a well-placed hit by Whitney, a couple misplays by the Royals and a block made it 19-11.
It was 22-12 pretty soon after that and after some more big hits by Sophie Wendt and Whitney, Farmington got to 25-15.
The Phoenix led 6-1 in the third set and forced a Roy timeout, which the Royals responded to with a 5-1 run to get within 7-6.
Whitney got a hit to go down for 8-6 and eventually the lead grew to 16-9 as middle blocker Elle Skabelund’s hits started finding the floor. Skabelund had the final hit of the match for 25-15 in the third set.