The Lady Rams of Parowan didn’t let the loss of their first set against region rival Kanab in the state championship get to them.
Instead Parowan’s girls went on to win three straight, scoring a 23-25, 25-16, 25-13, 25-23 victory Saturday night at the Sevier Valley Center in Richfield.
“I am so proud of the girls,” said Macey Yardley, head coach for Parowan. “We made history tonight.”
The win is the first state volleyball title in Parowan High School’s history, and it’s due to the hard work of the girls on the team according to Yardley, who is in her fourth year as head coach.
“They just grit it out,” Yardley said. “We really challenged them to do a few things that have challenged us this year.”
The two teams split their earlier meetings in the season, meaning Kanab was a dangerous team to be in the title bout with.
“We asked our girls to keep it clean, just give it their all, don’t let things hit the floor, communication and high energy,” Yardley said. “They just elevated it at every level.”
In the second set of the match, Parowan went on two five-point runs and another for six points.
“That’s volleyball, it’s all about the team that can create the run,” Yardley said.
“I am so proud of the girls. We made history tonight.” — Parowan head coach Macey Yardley
She said the team’s serving was also vital to the win.
“Our serving all around was big for us,” Yardley said. “We were able to put a lot of pressure on their serve receive, so they weren’t able to run their high-tempo offense.”
“Paige Felder was just deadly tonight,” Yardley said. “She’s an outside hitter, but we played her in the middle about half the time tonight. She was just able to terminate and made very few errors.”
For Felder, a sophomore, taking the championship was validation of all the hard work she’s done.
“I’m just so happy my mom was able to be here this year and hit the gym with me,” Felder said.
Being able to turn things around was also key, according to Felder.
“We knew we had to adjust and slow down their hitters on the outside, and we were able to do that in that second game,” Felder said. “We knew it was going to be a battle. We knew them and we were ready for anything.”
“We just changed Parowan’s culture,” said junior Addy Guyman. “We knew that we could do it. We just went back there and played our game.”
One player coach Yardley said stepped up in a huge way was junior libero Madison Adams. Adams took her service to its highest level of the year, scoring a ton of points, Yardley said.
“Mentally, that was huge for us,” Yardley said.
“It’s been ups and downs throughout the season,” Adams, a junior, said. “We played really well. We all just put our heart into it and played for each other. We knew the only team that could beat us was ourselves, and we didn’t let that happen.”
Senior Sidney Smith said she is thrilled to be able to end her high school career with a state championship.
“My freshman year we were the first team to get to state in seven years,” Smith said. “It’s really fun to see my senior year to see us be the region champs for the first time, and then to be the first state champs in school history.”