After 3 straight title-game losses, Morgan High volleyball beats Richfield to win 3A championship
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- Morgan High’s volleyball team celebrates beating Richfield to win the 3A state championship on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022 at Utah Valley University.
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- Morgan High’s volleyball team celebrates beating Richfield to win the 3A state championship on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022 at Utah Valley University.
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- Morgan High’s volleyball team celebrates beating Richfield to win the 3A state championship on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022, at Utah Valley University.
OREM — The last three seasons, Morgan High went to the 3A volleyball state championship game only to lose to Union each time.
In an example of just how consistent and reliable Morgan volleyball has been over the decades, the last time the Trojans went more than three years without winning a volleyball state championship was from 1990-94.
In August, this year’s senior class stared down the prospect of leaving MHS without a volleyball state title after three straight title-game losses.
The fourth title-game appearance turned out to be the charm because the No. 1 Trojans are back on top of 3A volleyball for the first time in four years after beating No. 2 Richfield in four sets (25-27, 25-10, 25-19, 25-10) on Saturday night at Utah Valley University.
“It’s amazing,” said senior setter Timberlee Peterson, a three-year starter. “(Three straight title-game losses) just lit a fire in us, and we went all out tonight and we weren’t going to lose.
“We’re very excited, I’ll tell you that.”
It’s the Trojans’ 20th volleyball state championship in school history and it’s the 23rd for head coach Liz Wiscombe, according to the UHSAA record book.
“It feels amazing because I got thinking, ‘I don’t know, we might’ve lost the recipe,’ so about time for me to get out of here if that’s the case,” Wiscombe said. “I was glad to see it. It’s been a hard year, we had to change offenses and all our kids don’t play and I wish I could get more in the game.”
Morgan and Richfield traded all sorts of big plays in the first set. They each saved one set point late.
The second time Richfield had a set point, the Wildcats clinched the 27-25 first-set win. The match turned on its head after that.
“We felt like if we could get a block up, that would really help us. And we challenged those kids to get a block up and they responded,” Wiscombe said. “It’s like I told them, we can get second or we can get first, and we’ve done second enough, we don’t want it again.”
Speaking of the block, Wiscombe made a big change to the team early in the season, going from a 5-1 offense (one setter) to a 6-2 (two setters) in an effort to get a better block up on the outside.
That meant Peterson, a three-year starter, and sophomore Emma Thurston split playing time.
“It was a little hard at first, but it was good and it was good for the team. We needed a big block up there and that’s why we were so successful this year,” Peterson said.
Outside hitter Grace Thomsen, a transfer from the same Union High that beat Morgan in the finals the last three years, hit a kill to put Morgan up 9-5 early in the second set.
It was then Peterson’s turn to serve and she did for the next 12 points as the Trojans turned what was an 8-5 lead into 20-5.
In a four-point sequence, Morgan teammates Halley Torman and Tori Smith pulled off three kill blocks.
Smith won successive points after a Richfield timeout with a soft hit in the middle and then a harder one when an errant Wildcats’ pass floated over the net.
“I think the energy changed a lot after those blocks. We got so many blocks that second set and then we started pounding them, and they didn’t have an answer for us,” junior middle hitter Alyvia Jaffa said.
Normally, Morgan does a lot of its damage through Jaffa, a 6-foot-3 middle hitter who led the team in kills and blocks and who verbally committed to UVU’s volleyball team earlier this year.
“I feel so excited, it’s been so fun. Especially the last two years losing to Union, this was a huge win,” Jaffa said.
The Trojans are known for setting their middle hitters most of the time. Thomsen, who leaves high school as a part of four state championship teams, shouldered a lot of the hitting load on the outside against the Wildcats.
“The thing about Grace is she’s just a great person and I know you hear that a lot, but she’s a person that’s a high caliber and she raises everybody else. And definitely, she can jump,” Wiscombe said.
After the 12-0 run in the second set, the Morgan block was alive and well. Jaffa and Torman blocked a huge Nicole Willardson hit back at her feet to give MHS multiple set points, which it converted soon after by winning the set 25-19.
The fourth set was more of the same for Morgan, which blocked well, hit well and really did everything well. It’s what the Trojans have done for decades, really.
Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.