The Corner Canyon Chargers have been the team to beat all year. Not only were they the defending 6A champion, but they went on a 12-game winning streak to start the year while losing only two sets.
Oh, and they did so without star middle Maija Mourtensen, who missed the first few weeks of the season to play for the U17 USA national team in Chile and won a gold medal in a win over Turkey.
Corner Canyon’s two seasons of dominance came full circle on Wednesday as it toppled the Skyridge Falcons 3-0 in the 6A state championship game.
Last year’s state championship was the first for the Chargers, and now they have a second to match.
“It’s fun to have that back-to-back championship,” said Corner Canyon coach Mindy Ricks. “First time for Corner Canyon, and now second state championship.
“These kids, half of them were here last year. We had a whole bunch of new kids this year, so it was fun to see that seniority come out and help those younger kids as they stepped on the court and what they needed to do.”
The Chargers came out swinging on Wednesday, but more importantly, established their block early. Mourtensen, the 6-foot-4 middle, was dominant all game on the net, as she tallied 10 kills while shoring up the defense.
Skyridge struggled not only to get into its system, but also to hit around Corner Canyon’s block. It gained some ground by capitalizing on Charger mistakes, but Corner Canyon still took the first set 25-23.
“I think definitely we just did our job defensively,” Mourtensen said. “We made sure we were pressed over the block, sealed, closed, and we all just did a good job in doing that. That’s how we stopped them from getting good swings and good points.”
The Chargers only continued to dominate into the second set, as their wide array of hitters racked up kills to an 11-3 start.
Then the Falcons finally started to get comfortable as Emma White and Sienna Kuresa were given better sets, and they took advantage with hard swings. They fought back and cut the lead to 20-17, but it wasn’t enough to take the set.
Corner Canyon continued to do its thing in the third set as Minnick hit multiple kills to pull ahead. She finished the match with 14. But when things got tight late in the third set with it tied 28- 28, it was Maia Schwalger who had clutch kills to pull ahead.
“Throughout the season we worked a lot on just getting first-ball kills and really focusing on hitting high,” Minnick said. “As a team, we did really well with managing balls, and we worked so hard this season to get to that point.
“It was not like that at the beginning of the season, but towards the end it was.”
With a 29-28 lead, senior middle Leah Schaub came up with the championship-winning block.
Despite a tough bracket path with Bingham and Lone Peak in the quarterfinals and semifinals, Corner Canyon lost only one set on its path to a second 6A championship.
