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OREM — Ellee Anderson knew the history of the Morgan High girls volleyball program going into her senior year.
With 18 state titles in multiple classifications, countless region championships, and a prestige held among the highest ranks in Utah high school sports, she understood the pressure of being the senior setter — the quarterback, if you will — on the powerhouse program from a school of roughly 400 students.
But only once in the program’s history had the Trojans accomplished what felt like the impossible — four-straight titles, a four-peat of championships to line a student’s four-year athletic career.
After already winning three, Anderson and the rest of the Morgan seniors set their sights on a lofty legacy.
Anderson dished out 27 assists, and junior Emery Wheeler had 15 kills and two blocks to help Morgan to a 25-14, 25-21-25,17 sweep of San Juan to clinch the program’s fourth-straight title in the Class 3A championship match at the UCCU Center.
“There was definitely pressure,” Anderson said. “But I think we all decided to embrace that pressure, and do the best that we could with it. We always have that pressure, so we just grow and play into it. I think it makes us play a lot harder.”
Ta’ssi Suesue had 16 kills to lead San Juan, and Bodell Nielson added 24 assists for the Broncos (13-5).
The Trojans, for all of their now-19 state titles, had only won four in a row once before — from 1999-2002, when the school competed in the old Class 3A before realignment began bouncing their rivals through the classifications.
But Thursday was about this year’s seniors. The graduating Class of 2019 wanted the four-peat, and played like it on the final day of their state tournament; Ausha Hales had 10 kills and two blocks, and libero Brynlee Ovard added four aces from the service line as the Trojans peppered San Juan with their best shot, took a hefty counter-punch from the Broncos, and pulled away for the win in much the same way they have all season — with a sweep.
Morgan hasn’t lost a regulation (non-tournament) set since Sept. 25, a 3-1 win over South Summit.
“We always tell them if they aren’t coming after you and gunning for you, then you aren’t where you want to be,” Morgan coach Liz Wiscombe said. “There’s a lot of pressure on these kids, but I think they rise to the occasion. I’m just proud of them. They battle year in and year out, and in the gym, they battle hard.
“Good kids win championships.”
The Trojans were challenged in the second set and even trailed the Broncos by a point or two midway through the set.
That’s when Anderson began setting her middle hitter, Abbie Cox, to push Morgan to a 2-0 lead with a 25-21 win in the second set.
Wheeler took it the rest of the way, and Hales smashed a kill that force match point with a 24-15 lead in the third set.
“They started playing better and got over some nerves for sure,” Wheeler said. “But I think we just wanted it so bad that we finished it off.”
Morgan, a program with a state-record 18 state championships all-time, was on the verge of a four-peat — it’s second in school history.
Cox finished with four kills and four blocks, and Hales added 10 kills and two blocks for the Trojans (23-5).
“All of us just really love each other, and I think deep down, we want the best for each other,” Anderson said.
