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Show Nefters ready for state tourney New but not improved tourney format has S. Davis coaches fumina By G.BRETT HART BOUNTIFUL--Davis, Bountiful and Woods Cross high school volleyball squads are gearing up for this weekend's state volleyball t tournament. 2 In an effort to save money, this . year's tournaments have been s changed slightly from the tradi-5 tradi-5 tional tournament format, a change ( that has south Davis coaches upset. Traditionally, the tournament has been held at a central location over a period of three to four days. Now teams will be forced to play two matches in as many days. Though the 3A and 4A tournaments tour-naments are both double elimination elimina-tion tourneys, they do differ slightly. slight-ly. The 4A tournament will begin Thursday and end Saturday. No 4A games will be played on Friday. The 4A teams will travel to the first place team's school in the region against which they compete. There, they will play both matches with a varying amount of time between. be-tween. The 3A tournament will be held Friday and Saturday at West High. The 3A teams will also play two matches in as many days. DARTS vs. BINGHAM In the Davis Darts case, they will travel to Bingham High School Thursday. Davis finished regular season play tied for fourth place with Layton. A coin toss decided the matter, and the Darts enter the tournament as the fourth place seed. Bingham is seeded first. The DavisBingham match is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. If the Darts win, they will face their second round foes at 8 p.m. If they lose they will play again at 6:30 p.m. The 4A finals will be held Saturday Satur-day at either Pleasant Grove or Mountain View High School. Dart coach Jamie Fox said she is not happy with the tournament changes. "The tournament now gives the best teams a home court advantage," advan-tage," said Fox. "We're not too excited about the changes. In the past the tournament has been at the same school; now, each team plays at a different school. We're concerned con-cerned with the amount of time the girls will have to sit around between matches' added Fox. In spite of the changes, Fox said the Darts are ready to play. "I've told the girls that they need to fight for every win. No games will come easy in the tournament," said Fox. "We've got to be mentally tough and play together by talking on the court, supporting and pumping each other up. " By Fox's own admission the Darts will have their hands full with Bingham who is the defending state champs. BRAVES vs. BEAR RIVER Though the Braves and Wildcats ended the season tied with Granite in a three-way deadlock for first place after last Thursday's matches, it didn't take long to "untie" the tie Friday. The principals from the three schools met Friday at Bountiful and tossed a coin to decide the seeding for each of the three teams. Granite, who split matches with both Bountiful and Woods Cross, won first place honors and will face a fourth place seed in the first round of the 3A tournament. Bountiful was next on Lady Luck's list. The second coin flip gave the second place seed to the Braves. For Bountiful coach Jill Avery, the fact that a hard fought season came down to a coin toss was, to say the least, "disappointing." However, looking on the brighter side, Avery did get her wish. She wanted the Braves to go into the tournament with either the first or second place seed-but not the third. The Braves' challenge now lies in getting everyone in peak playing condition. Bountiful was hampered by two key injuries which probably cost the Braves sole ownership of the region title. Bountiful's big hitters Lichelle Allen and Camille DuPaix were out Tuesday with back and knee injuries, in-juries, respectively. Both returned against Judge in the last match of the season, but neither was able to play at 100 percent. per-cent. I The Braves will work on getting j back into their regular routine as they prepare to face Bear River at 1 p.m. on Friday at West High. The Bears finished in Region Five's third place spot after a disappointing disappoin-ting loss to Box Elder. . If the Braves beat the Bears, they will play again at 9 p.m. Friday night. If the Bears upset Bountiful, the Braves will play again Friday at 7:30 p.m. - j 'CATS vs. SKYVIEW The Wildcats were thrust into the third place seed and will face a scrappy, second place Skyview team Friday at 1 p.m. at West High. If the 'Cats win, they, too, will play at 9 p.m. A loss to Skyview will also schedule a 7:30 playing time for their second game. Woods Cross coach Debbie Peel said that third place wasn't exactly where she hoped her Wildcat team would be seeded. "It's OK," said Peel. "It all comes down to the luck of the draw, but it's real disappointing to have a whole season come down to a coin toss. "I'm not happy with the changes j in the tournament They really take ! a lot of the fun and excitement out of it. What are our girls supposed to do while sitting around between matches? It's a real problem." In spite of the third place seeding and dislike for the new tournament format, Peel says she and her team have focused on their first-match opponent. ! "Skyview does a real good job with their program. They're a talented tal-ented team. It should be a pretty even match, ' explained Peel. Peel said she has told her players to look forward to playing in the state tournament and to enjoy it. "I've told them to keep the tournament tour-nament in perspective. As far as I'm concerned only one of our losses this year has been legitimate. We never should have lost to Granite or Tooele, but we beat ourselves. "Our loss to Bountiful was legitimate. They were definitely the better team that day." Peel said that she doesn't want an early loss in the tournament to ruin an otherwise -great season for the Wildcats. Because of the third place seeding, once the 'Cats get by Skyview, second game action will pit Woods Cross against one of the most dominant 3A volleyball powers in the state, Springville. "Springville is really awesome right now," said Peel. "I don't think they've lost a game in three years. . - ,0.JP 4 'm " 1 Is ( "". - S H I ft m a I i f . J 1 f- - S m. J - All f These five Viewmont X-country runners were among 20 athletes named to the Utah, 4A Crosscountry Cross-country Academic All-star team for 1990. Front is Paul Cutler. Left to right are Trevor Willey, Ammon Jones, Shauri Carling and Jason Hess. L |