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For 3rd straight year, Union beats Morgan High volleyball in 3A state title game

By Patrick Carr - | Oct 28, 2021

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner

Morgan High and Union's volleyball teams walk onto the court before the 3A state volleyball championship game Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021 at Utah Valley University.

OREM — For the third consecutive season, Morgan High and Union tussled in the 3A volleyball state title game.

The Cougars had won both prior meetings: a five-set epic in 2019 and a four-set win in 2020’s tournament that was relocated to Richfield because of COVID-19.

Early affairs indicated Thursday night’s meeting at Utah Valley University would go along the same path. It didn’t.

Union won its third straight championship, once again putting down the Trojans. This time, the Cougars scored a 26-24, 25-17, 25-18 sweep that amounted to the first time Morgan was swept by a team in the state tournament since a semifinal loss to Snow Canyon in 2012.

Anyone who follows Utah high school volleyball knows how good Morgan is year in and year out, and how consistently good the Trojans have been for decades.

Twenty-nine region championships in a row, which Morgan has achieved, is the kind of streak that’s unheard of. It takes a lot to beat Morgan once, let alone three years on the bounce.

“One of our big things we talk about is being disciplined. We got to be disciplined in practice, you gotta be disciplined in school and disciplined as good people,” said Union head coach Analaine Mailoto, who’s a Fremont High alumnus.

Early on, the margins were impossible to spot between the Trojans and Cougars. In a neck-and-neck first set, Morgan eventually got a set point leading 24-23.

Morgan had done well all over, from good hitting in the middle by Alex Trussell and Alyvia Jaffa, to good serving and good blocking. A big hit by Trussell made it a 20-17 Morgan lead before Union won five straight points,

Once Morgan got its set point, Union snatched the opportunity right back.

Jaffa’s block attempt on a hit landed maybe a couple inches wide of the line, Union won the next two points and claimed the first set 26-24.

Just like that, the air vanished from Morgan’s bench and appeared to carry over.

The Cougars put Morgan in a 10-3 hole early in the second set, a lead that grew to 21-13 as Union completely controlled affairs through outside hitter Grace Thomsen.

Had it not been for several hitting errors, UHS would’ve won the second set something like 25-12 instead of the 25-17 score it posted.

Union came into the state tournament with a 15-10 record, but that included matches against 6A Fremont (UHS beat Fremont earlier this month), 6A Syracuse, 6A Pleasant Grove, 5A Mountain View and 6A Skyridge.

Morgan stayed close to Union in the third set until the Cougars reeled off a 4-0 run to turn a 16-12 lead to 20-12.

Trailing 22-13, Morgan had a last-gasp 5-0 run, but Thomsen made another huge hit from the left side (on a night and from a side that she found a lot of daylight from) to end the Trojans’ run and put UHS into position.

The loss was painful to digest for Morgan, but particularly its seniors.

Earlier in the day after the Trojans’ semifinal win, Trussell, a senior, said the team wanted to win the state title this year “more than ever” because of the way 2019 and 2020 ended against the same team.

OGDEN, LCA BOW OUT

Ogden split its two tournament matches Wednesday, punctuated by a five-set win over Juab. The Tigers’ state tournament run ended Thursday in straight sets to South Summit in the fifth-place game.

Ogden, which didn’t have a senior on its roster this year, finishes with a 16-14 overall record.

Layton Christian advanced to the sixth-place game in the one-loss bracket, but fell in five sets to Delta. LCA, playing up in the 3A classification now, finishes with a 12-8 record.

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