Mountain Ridge volleyball start season with a win

By Justin Adams | [email protected]

The Mountain Ridge volleyball team started its 2021 campaign off with a 3-0 victory over Cedar Valley on Tuesday evening. 

“First game, you have a few jitters. You have to get the rust off. We progressively got better. Our first game we started out slow but got better in the second and third,” said assistant coach David Johnston. 

The Sentinels have to replace a number of key contributors from last year’s team. Setter Brooklyn Fonua, libero Janessa Olson and outside hitter Sammy Perry all led the team in their respective statistical categories in 2020. 

But Johnson isn’t worried about a lack of returning experience.

“Most of our juniors from last year played a significant amount. Our outside hitters played a lot last year. Our setter played a lot last year. Experience-wise, we’re doing pretty well,” he said.

One player who’s expected to be a major contributor is junior outside hitter Ireland Mcnees. As a sophomore last year, she was second on the team in both kills and assists. 

“We like to have our outside hitters put balls away. That’s kind of her job, to put the ball away when she has a chance. She’s kind of stepping up and being a team lead for us,” Johnston said. 

This year the Sentinels are competing in a new 6A region against a number of schools with strong volleyball programs. 

“It’s nice for us because we have natural rivalries with our new region. We’ve got Bingham, Riverton, Copper Hills… teams that have been really successful in the past. I think it’s going to be a really solid region,” Johnston said. 

To compete against their new competition, Johnston said the team needs to focus on their defense.

“It’s always about ball control. If we can control the serve and pass we’re going to be successful because we have enough guns to put balls away,” he said. 

Check out the rest of our photos from the match on our Instagram.