Girls volleyball: Fremont soars in sweep at Clearfield
CLEARFIELD — Fremont volleyball coach Analaine Mailoto didn’t let something as important as a pregnancy interfere with her team’s preparation for the upcoming season.
Mailoto was expecting when she put together the Silverwolves schedule in April this year, but it hasn’t affected the results on the court as they remained undefeated Thursday by sweeping Clearfield.
Fremont improved to 3-0 on the season with a straight-set (25-11, 25-19, 25-17) flyover of the Falcons in a non-region blanking.
“I just made my schedule how it worked out, so whatever happened, happens. I didn’t have any real strategy or anything like that,” Mailoto said. “It’s nice to have a lot of practices with these girls.”
Its not all smoke and mirrors this year, and the Silverwolves have a unique set of players who have put together this early season success.
“Our team is a little bit smaller … our team energy is a little bit different. Smaller and younger; we have four seniors and four juniors, then 20 sophomores and freshmen combined,” Mailoto said.
The Silverwolves closed the first set on a 17-2 run, the second set on a 12-5 spurt and ended with a 16-3 streak after trailing 14-9.
“Momentum definitely carries through each set. We like to use our energy at the beginning, knock a team out, one by one,” Fremont senior outside hitter Sadie Parrish said. “The faster we get started, the easier it is; we feel a little more relaxed when we play.”
Parrish finished with 11 serving aces and credited her team for a strong start to the season.
“Coach was able to see where we needed to serve, soft places to hit. We all stayed in it. It was really fun. We were consistent,” Parrish said. “It was a slow start to the season (in games played), but we’ve been practicing hard and working together well … just blended.”
Compared to Fremont’s three games this year, Clearfield (4-5) has now played nine as it prepares for Region 5 action next week.
“They’re a super, super good serving team. We practice, but we don’t necessarily serve as hard as they do. It’s hard to practice against something you’ve never seen,” Clearfield senior setter Madison Yeager said. “Mentally, we had a rough day. It got in our heads and didn’t get out fast enough. There wasn’t much we could do.”
Clearfield is not alone in being dominated by Fremont, as the Silverwolves have won their other matches 3-1 against Ridgeline and swept Mountain Crest 3-0.
“There was one practice where I played them one on six and beat them,” Mailoto said. “It taught them to never overlook anyone. We don’t go up and down, just play a steady game; then remind them when the going gets rough.”