Volleyball was back at Park City High School, and it felt like everything was normal in the gym once again. Park City’s student section was back after coronavirus concerns limited crowds last season and made the gym as loud as possible, while the players’ friends and family members watched with great anticipation. Every point, attack and dig for the Miners was met with thunderous cheers.
Unfortunately for the Park City faithful, the Miners came up well short against Skyridge, as the Falcons came into town and left with a 3-0 sweep. The Miners hadn’t been swept since the second match of last season against Lone Peak — their next opponent Thursday — and were last swept at home in 2019.
“We knew that Skyridge would be a good team, we just made a lot of first-game mistakes and didn’t execute super well,” coach Matt Carlson said. “But we saw a lot of good moments out there and a lot of bright spots. Just the consistency and some of the execution was not there.”
A back-and-forth first set saw the Miners take a 16-15 lead after a dump from sophomore Camden Goodman. However, Skyridge went on a 10-3 run to storm back and take the set.
Park City was poised to tie the match at one when it took a commanding 8-2 lead early in the second set. After three consecutive points for the Falcons, the Miners went on a 5-0 run themselves for a 13-5 lead midway through the set. Skyridge then rallied for seven straight points to bring the Falcons within one.
The two teams went back and forth for the rest of the set and were later tied at 23, 24 and 25 before a service error gave Skyridge set point. On the ensuing point, two diving saves from the Miners to keep the set alive were not enough to prevent the Falcons from scoring and securing a 2-0 advantage. Carlson chalked up Park City’s struggles late in sets to inexperience.
“Experience, courage, those would be big parts of that,” Carlson said. “We missed three game-point serves to get them up one. You can’t do that, that’s just focus and inexperience for sure.”
The third set was over almost as soon as it started, with Skyridge claiming a 10-3 lead early. The Falcons then scored 15 of the next 23 points to clinch a decisive 25-11 win in the third set and the sweep.
Issues on serves and returning Skyridge’s services plagued Park City all night long, with the second and third sets being especially troublesome. The Falcons scored 11 points off aces in the third set alone and another six off Park City service errors in the final two. Carlson said that mistakes and miscues set the Miners back on Thursday.
“Between serving and passing alone, there were 33 (errors) in the three sets,” Carlson said. “About four per set is what we say is average, so 12 is about 300% over what we need to be at for average.”
Still, there were bright spots for the Miners, who are trying to find ways to replace a stacked class of seniors from last year. Many players for Park City were playing on the varsity squad for the first time.
“Having some juniors really stepping up, they did some good things out there,” Carlson said. “Our middles did a great job, Grace (Crosby) had a good block in there, we had some new setters. Kelsey (Farber) did a great job I think at libero. I thought she stepped in and made some good digs out there. So there are definitely some bright spots, definitely have to clean it up quite a bit.”
Correction: A caption with a photo accompanying this article misidentified a player due to an incorrect roster.