3A, 4A volleyball: Orem, Emery end long title droughts with state championships

OREM — For a team with only three seniors, Orem High's slimmed down upper class made sure the Tigers played with plenty of urgency in Thursday night's 4A girls volleyball championship.

Sami Blackett made sure of that.

The Utah Valley commit totaled 12 kills and four aces as top-seeded Orem won its first championship since 1981 with a 25-14, 25-12, 25-23 win over Green Canyon at the UCCU Center.

"I've told them that we've worked hard all season for this, and this is what we wanted," Blackett said. "We've had this for a goal the entire season. The fact that we made it here, we didn't want to let up and lose this game. This was a big one for us."

All year, the Tigers (28-5) have walked past the entry to the school's field house and seen the only championship volleyball banner the school owns — from 42 years ago. So when it came time to clinch a historic achievement, there was little that needed to be said from coach Bill Sefita and his staff.

"It's been that long," Sefita said, "and it was time for us to take it. … It'll feel good to finally get some sleep tonight."

Kambri Kuhni added eight kills and four blocks, Sarah Page dished out 23 assists, and Orem served a dozen aces, including five from sophomore libero Scarlett Page to clinch the Tigers' first championship since the Reagan administration from the service line.

"We all just got up there and were super confident," Blackett said. "I know in the championship game, nobody wants to make an error or be the one to mess up, but we all got back there, and we were confident."

Scarlett Page served four aces, and Orem posted six block assists to cruise to a 25-14 win in the opening set.

The Tigers' serve continued in the second set with a pair of aces from Blackett. Sarah Page then found every hitter she needed, including Blackett for the 25-12 second-set victory to go up 2-0.

But Green Canyon (27-5) didn't lie down without swinging back. Summer Hahn's block helped the Wolves to a 14-12 edge in the third set, but Kuhni quickly tied it up at 15-all.

Still level at 23-23, Kuhni laid down a kill over the middle and Green Canyon sent a ball out of the back to clinch the Tigers' first title in four decades.

Elly Giordano had 12 assists, and Holli Daniels added six kills for the Wolves.

3A volleyball: Morris leads Emery to first title since 1996

Every time Morgan made a run at extending its state record for girls volleyball state championships to 21, Abby Morris was there for Emery.

The senior outside hitter wasn't going to give up on a dream nearly three decades in the making.

Morris had 23 kills, and Karleigh Stilson dished out 25 assists as the Spartans topped Morgan 25-20, 21-25, 25-23, 22-25, 15-12 in the UHSAA 3A girls volleyball championship match at the UCCU Center to clinch Emery's first state title since 1996.

Katelyn Nielson added 14 kills for the top-seeded Spartans (28-4), and Shannon Johnson added six blocks for a squad that finished 8-1 in five-set matches.

"Honestly, our region taught us how to fight," Morris said. "Every single game in our region was so hard. They taught us how to fight. We went so many games without a sweep, and we learned how to fight. It obviously showed tonight."

But the junior outside hitter with a hefty strike over the pins was perhaps the biggest fighter of them all.

"She's just got a really good attitude," Morris said. "She's a leader with the girls, and someone who can go to take care of the ball. They do that."

Gentry Criddle totaled 14 kills and four aces for Morgan (25-7), and Utah Valley commit Alyvia Jaffa added 12 kills and seven block assists for the perennial power Trojans.

Criddle scored 6 of the first 7 points for Morgan, the defending state champions that pushed the lead to 9-5 with five-straight trips to the service line that included three aces in the first set.

But Emery took a 15-12 advantage on an illegal touch midway through the first set, and Ashlyn Tuttle went to the service line to force set point, 24-19 before Johnson's kill took the 1-0 advantage.

Back-and-forth the two teams went, with the Trojans responding to equalize on Jaffa's kill and Emery taking a 2-1 edge on a service error.

After the two sides were tied at 12-all in the decisive fifth set, Emery made a familiar call — to Morris.

The pin hitter broke the gridlock and the Spartans never trailed again, right up to match point on a ball handling error before storming the court to cap off a celebration 27 years in the making.

"We've worked really hard for this," Allred said. "We put a lot of time and effort into it. This has been our goal all year long. It has been a long time coming, but they've been working for this. It's a good group of girls."

Abby Mckay dished out 20 assists for the Trojans.

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