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Show Page B2 Thursday, October 9, 2003 Times Newspaper Orem's playoff hopes flyin h in won LANDON OLSON Times Sports Editor A win is always welcome, but for the Orem girls' soccer team, Tuesday's victory against Lone Peak was' crucial in keeping the Tiger's state tournament chances intact. Dueling it out with the Knights for the third and final Region VII spot, Orem escape with a 2-1 victory vic-tory at home to move one game ahead of Lone Peak in the standings. stand-ings. If either Orem (6-7, 3-4) wins or Lone Peak (5-7, 2-5) loses in the final game of the season, the Tigers clinch the spot. "I'm relieved," said Orem coach Jennifer Rawlings. "Very, very excited." To start the game off though, things appeared to be going completely com-pletely in the Knights' favor. For the first 10 minutes of the game, Lone Peak controlled the pace and had several attempts at the Orem goal. Part of the reason for the Orem sluggishness was due to Rawlings starting a different lineup, as two players missed the start for disciplinary disci-plinary reasons. While the replacements did play well, Rawlings said the team chemistry on the field was a little different. "I think the rest of the team, we just came out really hesitant knowing we were missing our starting sweeper, we were missing another player, we had some injuries," Rawlings said. "As soon as we subbed them in, it calmed the nerves." Once Orem started playing together though, the game definitely defi-nitely shifted. The Tigers came close on a shot by Haley Warner in the 19th minute as she ricocheted the ball of the post. But the Tigers would finally connect 10 minute later though on a shot by Tamika Wilson. Wilson was able to beat her defender and take a shot toward the near post, glancing the ball off the post and into the goal. The score remained 1-0 until early in the second half. Carrying the momentum, Orem would strike again 13 minutes min-utes into the period, and this time, Warner wouldn't miss. Running the set play off a Brittany Call corner kick, Warner fought her way through the defense to the front of the goal and found herself in perfect position as Call's kick arrived. Warner let it bounce once before connecting on a header to send the ball into the net for her first goal of the season. "I Call had a perfect ball right to me," Warner said. "I had to kind of fight my way in, but it was a good ball. It was perfect timing, especially for this game." With the insurance goal on the board though, Orem 's play let down a little bit and Lone Peak started to get some chances. "With a 2-0 lead, that's a very dangerous lead," Rawlings said. The players feel secure, but it's not secure enough. You could see our team settle into this lax game." In the 30th minute of the half, one of those chances would pay off as Orem goalkeeper Allie Hatch lost the handle on the ball and Lone Peak's Whitlie Murdoch slipped by to knock it in for the goal. But other than the one play, mistakes by Hatch were rare. Playing aggressive, Hatch definitely defi-nitely showed she had some guts, diving after balls to snatch them away from defenders and making tough saves time and time again. "Nervous times," Hatch said. "At times I really second guessed myself while I was going out there. Their forwards really surprised sur-prised me. They were a lot quicker quick-er than I thought they'd be." Echoing the earlier words of one of her assistants, Rawlings said, "I'd rather have an overly aggressive aggres-sive keeper than a timid keeper." Orem will be on the road to face region co-leader Timpanogos on Thursday, while Lone Peak will be at co-leader Mountain View to wrap up the region schedule. The Tigers were defeated 4-0 earlier ear-lier in the season by the T-wolves. fly i , iL W 4 i ' fc. T r i , ... . V i , X i f - f ' m . .r ' V i : " i i 1 r ' - w a )h(tto by Landon Olson Times S'ewspuper Orem's Tamika Wilson (5) is knocked to the ground by Lone Peak's Jane Ann Patch while going for a ball during Tuesday's game. Wilson scored in the first half to help lead the Tigers to a 2-1 victory. ountain View m Late rally lifts to comeback victory over Orem photo by Landon Olson7mcv Sewspaper Mountain View's Lora Mitchell (35) makes an attack attempt over Orem's Kelse Moore on Tuesday. LANDON OLSON Times Sports Editor Trailing Orem 7-3 in the fifth game, thing weren't looking look-ing good for the Mountain View girls' volleyball team until middle blocker Lora Mitchell stepped up big time. Behind the serving of Ashley Henry, Mitchell helped lead the Bruins on a 10-1 run to pull out a 15-13 victory to clinch the match. Mitchell had three blocks, two kills and an ace in the fifth game as Mountain View defeated Region VII foe Orem on the road 19-25, 25-15, 25-21, 16-25, 16-25, 15-13. "She played well," Mountain View coach Wayne Wood said of Mitchell. "She played well all match. We're running her more in the back row so she can play defense. She's definitely impressed the coaches." Mitchell didn't want to take much credit for her performance perform-ance though. "Just luck," she said. "No one else was doing it." And while Mountain View (2-2) (2-2) fought back well, it wasn't the first time of the night the Bruins had to come from behind. In the first game, the two teams couldn't do any better than trade points as there were 15 ties, until 19-19 when Orem (0-4) got the upper hand, capitalizing capi-talizing on Bruin errors and scoring the final six points to take the game 25-19. But Orem wasn't able to maintain the momentum in the second game. The Bruins scored the first point and never trailed, going up 17-7 and eventually winning win-ning 25-16. "We just let them get in our head. We knew we could play a lot better," Mitchell said. Setter JaNae Wright said, "We just had to play as a team. We realized we need to win." Like the Tigers, though, Mountain View wasn't able to keep the pace with the third game resembling the first as points were traded and Orem took a late lead at 19-18. Much like Orem did in the first, Mountain View was able to go Vv on a game-closing run, scoring seven of the final nine points for the 25-21 win and the 2-1 lead. With their backs against the wall in the fourth game, the Tigers didn't back down, though. They were able to creep out to a four point lead at 10-6, before Mountain View responded to close it to 13-11, but a 7-0 run would put Orem firmly in control. The Bruins did fight back, but it wasn't enough as Orem forced game five with the 25-16 win. "That fourth game we strug gled," Wood said. We came up and played a lot better and a lot harder in the fifth game and just squeaked it out." Going into the fifth, the Tigers appeared to be riding high, jumping out to a 5-1 lead and then 7-3 before Mountain View called a time out to stem the tide. And it worked. Following an Orem error, Mitchell picked up three blocks to score in four points, and added a kill to give the Bruins a 10-7 lead. A dump by Orem's Kelse Moore halted the run, but with Mitchell serving, the Bruins ripped off three more points to take a 13-8 lead. The Tigers had one last gasp in them, though. Using a couple of Mountain View errors for momentum, the Tigers added back-to-back kills and an ace to knot the score at 13-13, but it was a close to victory as the Tigers would come. With Wright serving, serv-ing, although nervous at the line, she got her serves in and the final two points went to the Bruins for a 15-13 win. ; "I knew I had to get it in and that's all there was too it because I wasn't going to tie the game up with my missed serve," she said. ; Leading Mountain View at the net was Mitchell, who finished fin-ished with four blocks and seven kills. For Orem, Lauren Layton had nine kills while Marsha Heimuli has eight. With the win, Mountain View pulls alone into third place in the region while Orem is in fifth. The Bruins will be at Timpanogos on Thursday while Orem is at home against Lone Peak. THS spikers sweep Orem for first Region VII win LANDON OLSON Times Sports Editor Things just seem to go so much better when a team is working together. Take the Timpanogos girls' volleyball team, which hadn't picked up Region VII win, for example. Thursday at home against Orem, coach Stephanie Brinton said her players worked as a team the best they have all season, and as a result picked up the 25-15, 25-19, 25-21 victory. "That's what we've been working on working together," Brinton said. "You can't just play with one person. per-son. Everyone kind of came out and did their job." And it showed as Timpanogos (1-3) was able to rely on different players to come up big throughout the match. In 'the first game, behind strong play from Neilani Lotulelei, the T-wolves were able to go on a 9-0 run to jump up 18-7. Orem (0-3) would answer with a five-point five-point run, but it wasn't quite enough as Timpanogos got the 25-15 win. In the first game, Lotulelei finished with four kills and a block. "She's been doing a good job blocking for us and her timing was good," Brinton said of Lotulelei. In the second game, Timpanogos used another big run to distance itself from Orem. Trailing 13-12, the Timberwolves scored eight straight to take a 20-13 lead. The Tigers were able to close to within four at 22-18, but Timpanogos scored three of the last four points for the 25-19 win. Holding on to the 2-0 lead, Timpanogos jumped out to a 10-5 edge in game three, but Orem battled back, scoring six of the next seven points to tie the game at 11-11. This time another player would step up for the T-wolves, though. Outside hitter Amber Skidmore ended the Tiger run with a kill, then served up back-to-back aces to give Timpanogos the 14-11 lead. "Amber Skidmore, she's kind of quiet, but she kind of does her job," Brinton said. "I thought tonight she came through on some thing she's been working on. I get excited excit-ed to see them do things they've been practicing and working on." Orem would bounce back, though, scoring four straight to take a 15-14 lead, then holding the lead as late 18-17, 18-17, and tying the game at 19-19. 19-19. Five straight points by Timpanogos brought up match point though, and on their third attempt, the Timberwolves finally capi talized for the 25-21 victory to complete the sweep. While Orem hung with Timpanogos in through most of the games, it was a few key runs the Tigers allowed that gave the T-wolves the edge they needed. "It's the story of our season. sea-son. We play in spurts. We've just got to get out of that rut," said Orem coach Daniel McKeehan. But that doesn't mean he hasn't seen some good things out on the court. "The main thing I'm pleased with is that the girls are getting better. Every game, they're more competitive," competi-tive," he said. Directing the Tiger attack was setter Kelse Moore, whose play McKeehan has been especially pleased with. "Kelse has really stepped up," he said. "We challenged Kelse to be a better player. She's a junior, jun-ior, she's never played this position before and I think she's a hell of a setter." Things weren't all positive, posi-tive, though. Early in the second sec-ond game Tiger middle blocker Tiffany Harward had to leave the match due to an ankle injury. It's the second middle who's been injury for the Tigers, as Lisa Hortin was hurt earlier and the season sea-son an is just now working back into playing full-time. h """ ' ; 3i , ; : : $ ; i ' . : t . - 4 , ' s v . . . . V- t V. ., iv,. 5 ... f 5 s i i , ; ; : ., : ' ; . : , ' v ' I V u ' . - ' ' i If i frj 0 vl' : 1 "V 1 l ''') : v t v v v - ' , T pholo by Landon OisoalTimes Newspaper Timpanogos' Emily Henshaw( right) goes up for the block against Tiger Tiffany Harward (left). Harward would later leave the match with an ankle Injury as THS went on to win 3-0 i I |