It is something that the football players hope to have said of them in three weeks, but for the mean time, it is a fact for the Hurricane volleyball team as they swept Carbon Friday 25-23, 25-21, 25-11 to earn their first ever state championship.

The wins on the court may not have been as significant as the wins off the court for this group of unique young ladies. Losing a star player going into the final weeks of the season, not due to injury, but due to personal decision to leave the team, the Tigers rallied together and still peaked at the right time.

According to the Deseret News’ Amy Donaldson article, “Heartbroken is how coach Daniel McKeehan described both coaches and players in the wake of her decision. The team, he said, came together and tried to move on without her. About a week before the tournament, his players came to him and said they’d been talking with Takau and they wanted to forgive her. They wanted her back on the team.”

The young sophomore rejoined the team as both team and player came together to become unified. Some players gave up quality playing time, but rallied around the unified goal of winning the title. “It was very difficult when she quit, hard on all of us, including her,” Angela Shields said. “But people make mistakes. … It was hard to give up the playing time, but I would do anything to help my team win a state championship.”

With the entire team back on the roster, Hurricane went to work, first knocking off Ben Lomond 26-24, 25-22, 25-17 in a shaky first round match. Hurricane looked solid in their second round matchup against North Sanpete, winning 25-17, 25-17 and 25-22.

In the semi-finals Friday Hurricane matched with powerhouse Morgan and handled the Trojans in three sets 25-19, 25-21 and 25-20 to advance to face Carbon, who has dominated people all season.

It was not meant to be for the Dinos this time as Hurricane outmatched, outplayed and won surprisingly in three sets 25-23, 25-21 and in the championship 25-11.

Kristin Murphy/Deseret News