HIGHLAND — The Rocky Mountain Champions Classic is seen as a chance every year to get together some of the best teams of the season and let them have a shot at each other early on.
Sometimes it becomes a replay of the state championships from the year before, which is exactly what happened this season, twice.
The semifinals of the Gold Medal division were highly reminiscent of those matches that decided championships in November 2009.
The Dixie Flyers took on Region 9 rival Snow Canyon just as they seem to do every November for the state title. And the outcome was no different than usual as the Warriors yet again defeated the Flyers 26-24, 25-22.
But that wasn't where the similarities ended.
The 5A state championship match was also replayed in the second semifinal, as Region 4's Lone Peak Knights and Pleasant Grove Vikings faced off as they did in the state title match five times in the past seven years.
Again the 2009 5A state champs prevailed 14-25, 25-22, 25-23 to send Pleasant Grove to the title match of the Champions Classic.
One could say that it was that extra matchup so many people are looking for at the end of the state tournament. The only difference was that it came about 10 months late, and both teams had lost a host of their varsity players, including the Vikings loss of seven stars from last year's team.
Those graduations seem to come every year for these four perennial powers, however, and it doesn't mean much as all four teams reload every season and never seem to have to rebuild.
In the end it was the Snow Canyon Warriors who eked out a tough 25-22, 15-25, 27-25 victory over the Pleasant Grove Vikings for the Rocky Mountain title.
The Warriors only lost two total games in the entire tournament and not a single match. Still, the Snow Canyon coach saw plenty of improvements that her team needed to make.
"This is our first outing, and we saw that we have some cleaning up and polishing to do. The kids came up big at times. We have a nice core back, but we also have three sophomores and two juniors who need seasoning," said Alaina Parker.
"Our blocking and defense obviously needs to improve, but we started passing better, we had nice attackers, and Ciara (Parker) did a good job of distributing the ball. It was a collective effort the whole match."
While Parker did a nice job of distributing the ball, and the entire team put forth a balanced effort all tournament, the offense was led by Taylor Murphey and McKenzie Willey.
Kim Dahl was the Pleasant Grove leader on offense, being one of only a pair of returning stars for the Vikings. New setter Sydney Johnson distributed the ball well, and Delayne Daniel and Leo Fotu came up big at times for the Vikings.
e-mail: jolsen@desnews.com