4A volleyball: Green Canyon claims first volleyball state title in 3-1 victory over Desert Hills

OREM — Green Canyon made history on Wednesday night, winning its first state volleyball championship in school history. 

The No. 6-seeded Wolves defeated No. 9-seeded Desert Hills 3-1 (25-12, 27-25, 17-25, 25-23) at Utah Valley University to claim their first volleyball title. 

“This is what everybody dreams about,” Green Canyon head coach Madison Larsen said. “This is where everybody wants to be and these girls planned to be here from Day 1. This was their goal and they worked so hard every day to be here. I’m so proud of them for never losing sight of that.”

Shante Falslev, a senior, is happy to be finishing her high school volleyball career with a state championship.

“It means everything to us. We worked so hard for this and it means nothing more for us than to finally get what we worked for all season,” Falslev said.

Green Canyon, who beat Dixie 3-1 in the morning to advance to the state championship, came out of the gates ready to play after the pregame ceremonies were over. With a loud and rowdy crowd behind them — Green Canyon fans and students made the long trek from North Logan to watch the championship game and made their presence felt all match — the Wolves got off to a fast start in the first set of the match. Green Canyon took a quick 7-1 lead in the first set with some great serving from Falslev, winning the set 25-12. 

“We were ready. We just wanted to stop sitting around and just get into the game. They knew what they wanted to do and how they wanted to do it, and we were just ready to go,” Larsen said. 

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“We were not going to drop the first set. We knew that we had to start strong ... if we wanted to get the win,” Falslev added. 

The Wolves followed up that set with a 27-25 second-set win. Desert Hills led 16-12 in the second set, but Green Canyon was able to rally back. The Thunder had match point in the second set, but couldn’t convert. With the score tied at 25-25, Green Canyon had a block, then Desert Hills had an error and Wolves took their second straight set. Desert Hills rebounded in the third set with a 25-17 win. The Thunder were able to control the front line in the set, making some nice kills to extend the match to a fourth set.

Even after Desert Hills made it a match by winning the third set, Larsen had complete faith in her team.

“We just tried not to lose sight of who we are. The theme they picked this year was, ‘No doubt,’ so we just tried to remember that there’s no doubt that we’re going to go win this. We can’t let that one set change our game plan,” Larsen said. 

Desert Hills scored the first 4 points of the frame before Green Canyon went on a run of its own. After a back-and-forth open to the set, the Wolves took a 13-10 lead, forcing the Thunder to call a timeout. A Falslev block, a Green Canyon kill and a Desert Hills error pushed the lead to 16-10. A few points later, the lead was up to 18-12. The Thunder stormed back to get within 2 at 20-18 and led to a Green Canyon timeout. A Falslev block led to it being 23-21, then a Desert Hills block and Green Canyon error tied the game. A Madilyn Miles block put Green Canyon within a point of winning the championship and then the Wolves sealed the deal on a Desert Hills error. 

“They all played so well and they all played so well together. You just looked at them and you knew that they looked confident. They just all played so great,” Larsen said.