Cottonwood volleyball off to a roaring start

By Brian Shaw  |  [email protected]

In a year in which much is expected of the Cottonwood Colts volleyball team—last year the Colts went deep into the state tournament—the team is picking up right where it left off. 

The Colts have galloped through their preseason slate thus far, racking up victories in four of their first five matches.

While that is no indicator that Cottonwood will continue to do the same when it begins what will likely be a brutal region stretch of games featuring two matches apiece against the likes of Alta, Corner Canyon, Brighton and Jordan—not to mention Timpview—the Colts like what they've seen so far.

“So far, the season is off to a great start,” said head coach Paige Allred. “The girls are working extremely hard and it is paying off.” 

Cottonwood kicked off the 2018 season with a 3-1 victory over Kearns on Aug. 21. The Colts won the first set before dropping the second, which served as a wake-up call of sorts as Cottonwood went on to win the next two sets and the match.

On Aug. 23, the Colts traveled to Magna to take on Cyprus. In this match, Cottonwood would not be denied, galloping to a 3-0 victory in straight sets, taking their record to a sparkling 2-0 on the season. 

Cottonwood would meet its match on Aug. 28 at Granger, however. Another trip west for the Colts met with a different fate this time as Cottonwood would lose the match to the Lancers in three straight sets—the first and only time all season that the Colts have lost more than one set in any match. 

“Our loss to Granger taught us that we need to be more aggressive with our offense and continue to work on our blocking and passing game,” said Allred. “We have a younger team so we need to learn how to work together in order to reach a shared goal.”

For Allred, the match against Granger that served as a learning experience for her team and Cottonwood would help her young but talented squad bounce back the next match, at Hillcrest. 

The trip to Midvale to take on the Huskies proved the perfect medicine for Cottonwood, who roared ahead to easily win the match three sets to one over Hillcrest. 

The Colts then wrapped up their preseason at home against Olympus on Sept. 6. They again were victorious, winning the match by a score of three sets to one. 

At 4-1 overall and going into region play, the Colts are right where they want to be, according to Allred, improving upon certain aspects of their game as they aim to repeat and maybe even better their state tournament run from last year. 

“Our team's goals [as we start region play] would be to continue to work towards cohesive play and better communication amongst teammates.”