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Show Thursday, September 18, 2008 OREM TIMES Page 11 Region 7 Jared Lloyd NORTH COUNTY For years Utah Valley has boasted some of the best volleyball vol-leyball in the state but since the 2005 realignment, Region 7 hasn't been able to reach the 4A state championship game. This year they hope to turn things around. "Last year I think everyone was disappointed with the way the teams finished," said Orem head coach Natalie Kidman. "We had greater expectations and learned a valuable lesson. Our girls have a sour taste in their mouth and are working harder. They want it more." But before those teams can get to the top of the state, they have to figure out how to make it through another tough league schedule as a number of teams believe they have the talent to earn the top seed. "It's going to be tough this year," said Provo senior setter Samara Ellsworth. "They're all going to be good teams. But I think if we're ready to play and stay together as a team, we'D do well." All of the Region 7 squads hope that this year the parity will be a strength that will get them ready for the state tournament. "It's always nice to play against good teams," said Spring-vUJe Spring-vUJe head coach Wade Taylor. "I Owlz Continued from Page 9 load the bases, giving the 2,301 fans hope. Great Falls pitcher Drew O'Neil then hit Castillo, which prompted a pitching change. The Voyagers called on Enrique Lechuga, who got Townsend to ground out and Brooks to hit a sacrifice fly, but the Owlz got two runs of out it. Perez keep the inning going with an RBI single to cut the lead to 8-5. That's when the Voyagers called on Albritton. Michael Wing looked like it would keep the inning going when he crushed a Albritton Albrit-ton fastball, but it was to the wrong part of the park. Great Falls center fielder Jordan Cheatham tracked it down in front of the 427 sign. The loss ended Orem's bid to repeat as Pioneer League champions and gave Great Falls its eighth title, second most of any team behind Billings, Bill-ings, who has won the championship champi-onship 10 times. Even though the Owlz don't get the trophy but do take with them to the offseason knowing they had the best record in the league and survived the loss of their manager Tom Kotchman, who returned to his Florida home in August when his wife became ill. "Kotch is home taking care of his wife family and he Lloyd Continued from Page 9 have been their to see the upset of the night, Tooele isn't exactly ex-actly across the street. Instead, I watched the Red Devils pummel the Bulldogs and the Bruins handle the Lions, and each of the victors were able to take advantage of its strengths. Springville used accurate short passes and draws or trap plays on the ground, getting it in the hands of playmakers Cotton Ramon, Luke Frampton and Marcus Case. If Red Devil quarterback quar-terback Isaac Allred has time to survey the field, he's accurate enough to pick opponents apart. V, We carry building materials, paint, cabinets, lighting fixtures, furniture and appliances. 'BEST PRICES ON LITTLE GIANT LADDERS! Donate all your surplus building materials, hardware, tools, and furniture to Habitat for Humanity Hu-manity to help Utah families and further our cause. qfrlbbitM forHuRMrJty 626 N. Freedom Blvd., Provo Rpnm Ca" 3RE5TOR for questtons VSOlWI C (373 7867) 10-6 M-F. 9-3 Sat volleyball race wide open like the way right now that we have some games that we can play some younger players and others that get us ready for state. It's a good thing to see teams that might be in the top eight in the state in your regioa" Here's a brief look at each of the seven teams in the league as region play heats up: Contenders Orem The Tigers have the most experience of any team in the league and that makes them the early favorite, but Kidman knows that things can change very quickly. "When we control our side of the net, we control the game," she said. "But if we don't take care of the little things, it gets away from us. We have to control con-trol our errors." April Robins and Ella Moe will be getting the ball from Shelby Lamoreaux and Sarah Hansen with Tameeka Jones and Kaysie Taylor in the middle. If Orem gets on a roll they could not only win the league title but make a run in the 4A tournament. Mountain View The Bruins lost some players play-ers and brought in a new head coach in Andy Young, but Mountain View could still end should, family comes first," Del Chiaro said. "It was probably prob-ably a shock for some of the younger kids in their first year in professional baseball to lose someone with over 1,500 wins and 11 championships. He's the leader and the captain of this team. For their leader to go home for family needs, it might be a little bit of a shock, but I'm proud of these kids the way they responded and battle through adversity." Despite the loss of their skipper, the Owlz had and it included a series out standout performances. Roberto Lopez hit .400. Luis Jimenez led the league in home runs with 15. Jayson Miller was the Pitcher of the Year with a 8-2 regular season record with a 2.33 ERA. Will Smith (8-2, 3.22 ERA) and Angel Castillo (.281, 14 HR's) were both named to the Pioneer League's All-Star team. "It will probably take a couple days for the disappointment disap-pointment to ware off, and then they can look back and reflect that it's not all based on one game," Del Chiaro added. "They're going to realize they had an incredible incred-ible year and they did. For a team to win both halves and to lead the league in pitching pitch-ing and hitting and have the pitcher of the year and the MVP. It's a tremendous Mountain View, on the other . hand, will try to wear down opponents op-ponents with smashmouth football. foot-ball. Running backs Anthony Heimuli and T J. Mounga just keep coming at you, powerful enough to break tackles but with the speed to break the big one as welL The Bruin line has to be able to open up some gaps but if it does, Mountain View is tough to stop. Perhaps home field advantage is overlooked in the high school ranks, but it can't be overstated this past weekend. Each of the winners had the home crowd behind it. I also think that generally officiating of-ficiating should be overlooked the guys in the stripes are do fMtlmtP up on top of the region. They will look to sophomores like hitter Haley Hawks, middle blocker Jerrica Redd and newcomer new-comer Chelsey Schof ield to be the young talent while Heather CHassford and Amy Conrad provide some experience. Springville The Red Devils were the only team to place from Region 7 last year, coming in with the eighth spot. This year they want to move up even though they tost a couple of players from that squad "We tost a couple of really good players but I've seen a tot of improvement for this team," said Taylor. "This is a scrappier team that I think is the best I've coached here." Provo The Bulldogs are solid defensively de-fensively and look strong with their setting. If they can find a way to consistently play well at the net, they might be the team to beat. "We're just short," said head coach Wendy Bills. "We're still young in certain aspects and we're still learning." Dark horse Payson The Lions lost a tot to graduation gradua-tion last year but still believes it honor. I told the guys that they had nothing to hang their heads about. They can't fail in my eyes. It was a tremendous tre-mendous honor to be part of this team." I Owlz force Game 3 with 13 inning win: At Orem, running with scissors. Riding without a helmet. Text messaging while driving. driv-ing. The Orem Owlz like to live a little. With their season on the line, the Owlz rallied to tie the game in bottom of the ninth and in the bottom of the 11th inning, before finally dispatching dispatch-ing of Great Falls 3-2 in 13 innings in-nings to even the best-of -three series at 1-1 and keep their season alive. "I'm just so dang proud of these guys. They didn't give up all night. They were down all night long," said Orem manager Brent Del Chiaro. "Great Falls came up and got a big run and we came back and tied it. It was back and fourth all night. A lot of credit goes to their pitching staff and our pitching staff. It was just a great game. Our kids just didn't quit." Orem's Jon Townsend led off the bottom of the 13th with a line drive single. It looked like Orem's inning with end without any further incident when Beau Brooks struck out and Darwin Perez lined out, ing the best job they can but it seemed to be raining yellow hankies all over the Vafley this last weekend. Penalties dragged a number of games into near oblivion as the contests lasted over three hours, including Timpanogos-Snow Timpanogos-Snow Canyon reaching the 3.5-hour mark. That's unacceptable unaccept-able and absurd in a high school game that doesn't have television televi-sion timeouts and only plays 12-minute quarters. Even though the games themselves them-selves took forever, the overall picture in Region 7 cleared up significantly after just one evening eve-ning of league play: Timpview is on a level of its own while Provo and Payson are going to have a tough time. could end up with one of those four playoffs spots. Seniors Katherin Caldwell and Morgan Bateman will have to be strong inside, while juniors ADanna Finlayson and Heather Woodland will be key hitters. It's a team that hasn't seen a tot of action but that could gel together under new head coach Amber Hall and become be-come dangerous. Building for next year Timpview The Thunderbirds haven't been a factor in league volleyball volley-ball for the last few years but first-year head coach Kristen Bailey plans to change that. Senior setter Tani Freeze will need to set the stage for her team, while senior Brianne Gordon has to be a rock in the middle if Timpview is going to be able to pull of a couple of upsets. Tooele The Buffalos have one more season in Region 7 before realignment re-alignment next fall and they hope to set themselves on the right track by having some success. It won't be easy for Tooele, who returns some good players play-ers but doesn't appear ready to compete for the playoffs this fall but then Ivan Contreras hit a chopper to shortstop Lee Fischer, who knew he would have to hurry to get Perez and after he bobbled the ball, he had no chance. Pioneer League MVP Roberto Ro-berto Lopez, who was 0-for-6 on the night then hit a ground ball through the right side of the infield. Great Falls outfielder out-fielder Lyndon Estill charged in and came up throwing, but Townsend slid in just ahead of the tag to give Orem the win. "You're looking at it and he's (Lopez) 0-for-6 and your thinking this has got to be it right here," Del Chiaro added. "He's just too good of hitter to go 0-for-7." Lopez ended the game, but if it weren't for Townsend, who had three hits on the night, the Owlz would have been finished in the ninth inning. in-ning. The Voyagers gave the ball and a 1-0 lead to reliever Dan Remenowsky in the ninth. He walked Tyson Auer to lead off the inning. Del Chiaro called on Alex Silversmith to pinch hit for Angel Castillo. He tried to bunt Auer over, but popped it up in foul territory to Kyle Shelton at first. Townsend then split the gap in left center for a double that scored Auer to tie the game. Great Falls took the lead again in the 11th, but the Voyagers Voy-agers couldn't make the lead hold up. That leaves four teams fighting fight-ing for three playoff spots as Mountain View, Springville, Orem and Tooele each could get enough wins to make the 4A state tournament. I still think Mountain View, Springville and Orem will be those teams but Tooele has given notice it can't be overlooked over-looked any more. My gut says the Buffalos won't have enough to make it through another five weeks, but they already proved me wrong once. Maybe they or someone else from Region 4 or Region 7 will do the same thing next weekend. 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Our agents convey expert knowledge, valuable Bruins Continued from Page 9 "We still have some weaknesses, weak-nesses, but we'D keep that confidence up and we're going go-ing to keep rolling," Heimuli said. In spite of any weaknesses, the Bruins are where they want to be on top of Region 7, at least for now. Johnson points out that his team's 0-3 start doesn't mean nearly as much as its current 1-0 record in region play. "One thing about Utah is that non-league games don't matter. Of course we don't want to lose, but in the big scheme of things, the only games that matter are regioa" Mountain View will look to keep its momentum next week against Tooele. Payson (04, 0-1) will host Timpview next Friday. Volleyball I Bruins beat Provo in five sets: At Provo, those looking for an epic volleyball match on Tuesday night needed to look no further than Provo High School, where Region 7 foes Mountain View and Provo faced off in what turned out to be a head-to-head battle between two sophomores: Mountain View's Chelsey Schofield and Provo's Cassidy Christiansen. Schofield's Bruins eked out a victory over Christiansen's Bulldogs 25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 18-25, 18-25, 15-13 in a marathon match for their second region win of the year. Schofield ended up with 15 kills, 11 digs and two blocks while Christiansen recorded 16 kills and three aces, playing with an injured knee. Mountain View (2-1, 2-0 Region 7) won a tightly contested con-tested game to open the match, but started the second game strong, eventually leading Provo 22-12. But the Bulldogs (0-3, 0-2), as they did all night long, came roaring back to pull within four points before the Bruins closed it out. Down 0-2, Provo looked to another sophomore to provide a spark. Camille Nelson came on strong in the third game and helped her team overcome a 10-4 deficit to win the game. Provo used that momentum to dominate the fourth game and tie things up at 2-2. In the fifth game, with her team down early, Schofield went on a tear with five kills and got some timely serving from libero Camie Redd as the Bruins held off the scrappy scrap-py Bulldogs in the final game. Mountain View coach Andy Young said his team got a little too relaxed once they were up 2-0. "I felt that our hustle was down in the games we lost," he said. "Also, we made a lot of errors that we need to work on." Young said that going into the final game he just told the girls to stay upbeat. "I told them to stay positive and believe in each other," he said. "Negative energy isnt going to get us anywhere." In addition to the efforts of Schofield and Redd, the Bruins Bru-ins also got some great play from freshman Rachel Steele, who had seven kills and eight blocks, and Heather Glass-ford, Glass-ford, who finished with 12 kills and two digs. . Provo coach Wendy Bills said that although she was disappointed in the loss, ; she was impressed with her young team's effort. "My underclassmen stepped it up big time tonight," to-night," she said. "They played hard but just not good enough for the win." Next up, Mountain View will host Tooele on Sept. 23 while Provo will try to rebound this Thursday at Payson. Everythi una Real Estate Presented by Mikt and Julfo Pwrce IT'S ALL RELATIVE experience, energy, passion and the excitement of a job well done. UTAH VALLEY REAL ESTATE an provide valuable information on preparing your home for sale, pricing your home right, and marketing it effectively. Conveniently located at 315 South 500 East, American Fork, we are passionate about our job, love the neighborhood neighbor-hood and keep up with the latest trends and strategies so that we can pass them on to you. Call us at 801-830-9292 and we will serve as your personal guide through this exciting process. HINT: Don't forget that a strong seller's market mar-ket makes it more difficult to find a new home after you have sold your old one. .There are always al-ways compromises to be made. I . I Bruins beat T'Birds on coach's B-Day: At Orem, Mountain View volleyball coach Andy Young asked for two things from his team for a birthday present. Although the Bruins came up short of Young's birthday birth-day requests of winning each set by 10 points and achieving a service percentage percent-age of 90 percent, Mountain View still got what mattered mat-tered most as it defeated Timpview 25-14, 25-11, 25-16 in its region opener last Thursday night in Orem. "They played tough. It's a young team but they're starting start-ing to play together," Young said. "They came pretty close on the one present (of winning each game by 10 points)." The Bruins used great serving from Amy Conrad, great hitting from Chelsey Schofield, and solid all-around all-around play from Heather Glassford, Camie Redd, and Rachel Steele to earn the win in straight sets. The T'Birds played well at times, but any time they got close, Conrad would reel off several service points, or Schofield would get a big kill to end Timpview's rallies. Conrad finished with 13 aces on 23 serves, and also had 31 assists. Schofield had eight kills. "Amy had a great game with her serving. Amy's serving serv-ing made up for some of the rest of the serving," Young said, referring to his team's service percentage of 70 percent. "Chelsey's always a great contribution as far as her hustle and attitude on the floor," In the first set, the T'Birds opened up a 6-5 lead early on before Mountain View went to work. With Glassford serving, the Bruins reeled off eight straight points to take a 14-7 lead. After Schofield Scho-field had three kills in a five point stretch to make it 21-11, Glassford closed out the set with a pair of kills and an ace to help Mountain View win it 25-14. The Bruins kept up their momentum in the second set as Conrad served eight straight points to build an 8-0 lead. Mountain View eventually eventu-ally built a 204 lead before Timpview made a brief comeback come-back effort. The T'Birds went on an 84 run before the Bruins Bru-ins won 25-11. Timpview continued to play well early in the third set, taking tak-ing a 9-8 lead. However, Conrad Con-rad served three aces to give Mountain View a 13-9 lead. Fittingly, with the score 24-16, Conrad ended the set and the match with her 13th ace of the night. Conrad is one of only four seniors on the young Bruin squad. Mountain View used seven underclassmen in the win. "I'm real excited for the region. One of our goals for the season is to be first in our region and I think it's definitely doable," Young said. "We've got a lot of young players and they're starting to work together really well. It's only going to go up from here." Soccer I Mountain View 4, Timpview 1: At Orem, four different players scored as Mountain View improved to 4-6-0, 4-2-0 in Region 7. Ciera McKinley and Chelsea Chel-sea Kocherhans scored in the first half for the Bruins. Maile Laviki and Arielle Harrison Har-rison scored in the second half, sandwiched around Timpview's only goal of the game. Lexi Robison, Abbey Cot ant, Shalayne Janis and Anjie Lines had assists for the Bruins. I Tyson Camp contributed to this report 1W |
