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Girls volleyball: Adjustments lead Weber to 3-1 win at Davis to open region play

By BOB JUDSON - Special to the Standard-Examiner | Sep 19, 2024
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KAYSVILLE — Both teams often mentioned the word adjustment on Thursday afternoon.

Weber High volleyball coach Renae Birch needed to make a change after the Warriors lost their first set against Davis, 25-22.

Birch tweaked her lineup and the Warriors rolled from there, taking three straight (25-20, 25-18, 25-22) to defeat the Darts 3-1 in the Region 1 opener for both schools.

“We started off weak and didn’t have any fire or consistency; I made a lineup switch and flip-flopped the rotation of my outside hitters (Sophie Sparrow and Hanna Longhurst) which put us by the right players,” Birch said. “From that point on, I think we started every set strong and finished it out; the adjustments we made worked really well.”

Weber (8-7, 1-0 Region 1) opened up a 17-10 lead in the second set with a 10-2 run and led by at least four the rest of the way.

“We were eliminating our errors, making adjustments to how they played defense … playing our game really helped us,” Birch said.

A quick 8-1 lead let the Warriors coast to the third set win, then Davis (6-12, 0-1) couldn’t hold a 20-18 advantage in the final set as Weber closed it out.

“(Davis) played smart, working off our right side. Once we adjusted and got some blocks, we started turning the ball back into the court,” Birch said. “Just stepping up and realizing we need to go get this now, we don’t want to go to a fifth set. Catch them by 20 and see what we can do.

“Our serving in the third and fourth (sets) really took off. We got a lot of aces, won the battle. It makes the game a lot easier to play if you’re serving and passing well,” Birch said.

Sparrow led the Warriors with a double-double — 10 kills and 10 digs, adding three aces.

“In the second set, we got some energy back. We were definitely putting the ball away better than the first set. Serving, getting lots of aces. We were all doing our part,” Sparrow said. “We’ve all been working really hard in the gym to make sure we know what we’re doing; play the positions we’re supposed to and being disciplined.”

Longhurst had nine kills for the Warriors, while Kate Field added nine kills and eight blocks. Tesyn Stewart chipped in with 10 digs.

Davis was unable to maintain its momentum after the 25-22 victory in the first set.

“We came out really aggressive and our defense was super impressive, which gave us a lot of opportunities on offense,” Davis coach McKay Barker said. “Our passing took a little bit of a nosedive in the middle of the second set and that will win or lose us games. Our serving was aggressive the whole game; we just need to make sure our passes stay on the same level.”

“We saw them in preseason so we knew a lot about them and were able to get them out of their system,” Barker said. “They made some adjustments and got onto our middles, which shut us down the rest of the match.”

The Darts had several players put up big numbers, including Leah Tuft with 17 kills and Mirella Gonzales Carrillo, recording 10 kills and 11 digs. Libero Zoey Walsh went deep for 16 digs and served five aces.

“We played some big preseason games; scheduled a hard preseason on purpose,” Birch said. “There are also strong teams in our region; we need to make sure we’re ready to go and make adjustments where needed … see our weaknesses and fix them in practice and in the game.”