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OREM — As Tasia Farmer collapsed to the floor following Lone Peak’s epic five-set win over Pleasant Grove in the Class 6A state volleyball championship, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Five sets. A four-hour final. An epic comeback. And 211 points of volleyball led to one thing.
The Knights were back on top.
There was only one problem — she had to get out of the way as hundreds of up-too-late teenagers flooded the court at the UCCU Center following the Knights’ 21-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 15-11 win over Pleasant Grove in the championship match.
“We knew everything that we could do, and what they could do,” said Farmer, who led six multi-kill players with 12 kills in the title match. “It felt OK. It was all worth it.”
Madelyn Robinson added nine kills for Lone Peak, and middle blocker Kennedi Boyd had five kills and 10 digs for the Knights on a night when every single point was a grind for a match that didn’t tip off until after 10 p.m. MT.
Jacquelyn Langhaim dished out 30 assists for the Knights. “This was huge for us. It was hard to lose the first set, but we fought as a team,” Farmer said.
“We know that we work hard every single day, and we definitely earned that.”
After trading 25-21 victories in the first two sets, Kennedi Boyd’s big block gave Lone Peak a 17-14 edge in the third set, but Pleasant Grove tied it up just three points later on a miss hit.
Class 6A girls volleyball all-state first team
| Name | Pos | School |
|---|---|---|
| Taylor Tausinga | S | American Fork |
| Jacquelyn Langhaim | S | Lone Peak |
| Seleisa Elisaia | RS | Bingham |
| Megan Sintay | RS | Pleasant Grove |
| Heather Gneiting | MB | Pleasant Grove |
| Kennedi Boyd | MB | Lone Peak |
| Autumn Stafford | MB | Lone Peak |
| Madelyn Robinson | OH | Lone Peak |
| Kazan Tarawhiti | OH | Pleasant Grove |
| Abbie Vincent | OH | American Fork |
| Hanna Waddell | LIB | Pleasant Grove |
Megan Sintay’s massive block gave the Vikings a 21-20 lead, and sent the overcaffeinated student section into a frenzy for a match that tipped well after their Saturday bedtimes.
Heather Gneiting glided over ther teammates and put up a kill that forced set point, then double-blocked with teammate Tarawhiti to take a 2-1 advantage with the 25-23 set victory.
“I said, ‘OK, we’re going five,’ Langhaim said. “Bring it on.”
Boyd showed up again the fourth set, outlasting an exhausted Pleasant Grove defense to smother the set-winning point, 25-20 and send the championship to a decisive fifth set.
Neither team led by more than two points in the final set due to sheer exhaustion as the clock rounded toward the middle of the night.
But Boyd’s eighth block of the night gave the Knights an 11-9 lead, and and Lone Peak ended the match on a 4-2 run to claim the state title.
And then came the court storm, causing setter Langhaim to clutch the cherished trophy like the hard-earned piece of hardware that it had become.
“That scared me, and I was overcame,” Langhaim said. “We had to work really hard. We focused on working 100 percent on every single ball, and that’s all we were focused on: one ball, and then the next one.
“There’s no place I’d rather be than here. It doesn’t even feel like midnight. I would give any Saturday for this.”
Gneiting led Pleasant Grove with 11 kills and three blocks, and Kazna Tarawhiti added eight kills and three blocks for the Vikings, who got 21 assists from Baylie Bishop.
