ST. GEORGE – Region 9 opened play Thursday night. All seven teams played as Canyon View traveled to Richfield for their region bye. The top two ranked preseason teams won their region openers while Snow Canyon beat Pine View in a mild upset. Below are game summaries of the action:

Dixie 3, Hurricane 0

The Lady Flyers began region play on the road and responded by winning in straight sets 25-19, 25-17, 25-15.

“Our goal for this game was for everyone to rise to the occasion,” Dixie head coach Stacy Leavitt said. “We played like a team and everyone stepped up. It was a good way to start off region play.”

Dixie had a balanced attack. Lauren Beatty had eight kills. Shawnee Jones and Brynn Eardley had seven and six kills, respectively. Brooklyn Wright led the team with six aces and 32 assists.

“We had periods of good play,” Hurricane head coach Content Marshall said. “We have to play more consistently throughout the match. I know in time it will all come together.”

For Hurricane, Alexis Martin led the team with 16 assists. London Gubler led the team with six kills. Abbie Elison and Kena Carter had five kills apiece.

Dixie improves to 6-2 overall and 1-0 in region. The Lady Flyers will host Desert Hills on Tuesday. Hurricane falls to 4-5 overall and 0-1 in region. The Lady Tigers will travel to Pine View on Tuesday.

Desert Hills 3, Cedar 1

One thing was clear from the beginning of the match — Denim Henkel can serve. The Cedar junior opened the match by scoring 11 straight points. But the Lady Reds could not carry the momentum and fell to Desert Hills 14-25, 25-18, 25-13, 25-22.

Cedar would build its largest lead in the first set to 13-2. The Lady Thunder were able to match Cedar on points the remainder of the set, but could not overcome the huge advantage and had to cede the first set to the Lady Reds.

“Cedar serves the ball very well,” Desert Hills head coach Sharon Christenesen said. “We made some adjustments. We put in our most athletic players for serve-receive.”

In sets two and three, Desert Hills did not spot the visitors any lead and took both sets comfortably. In the fourth and deciding set, however, Cedar would not go away. The Lady Reds would lead as late as 21-20 before Desert Hills closed the match with five of the final six points.

“We knew that they would bounce back,” Cedar head coach Nicole Anglin said. “We had better play in the fourth set and thought that we would be able to close it out and force the fifth, but we had two critical errors down the stretch.”

Individually for Desert Hills, Madi Clark led the team with 12 kills. She also had 12 digs and led the team with three service aces. Hallie Sonju had 11 kills. Allie Beck had 10 digs and led the team with four blocks. Andi Sonju also had double-digit digs with 15. Saselah Goulding and Andi Sonju had 18 and 14 assists, respectively.

The Lady Thunder improve to 1-2 overall and 1-0 in Region 9. Desert Hills will travel to Dixie on Tuesday. Cedar falls to 6-5 overall and 0-1 in region. The Lady Reds will have a bye on Tuesday. They will play next on Thursday when they host cross-town rival Canyon View.

Snow Canyon 3, Pine View 1

Down 20-10 in the fourth set, the Lady Warriors clawed back and defeated Pine View 25-21 to close out the set and the match 25-20, 27-29, 25-19, 25-21.

Individually for Snow Canyon, Sammi Johnston led the team with 21 kills. Addie Tauanuu led the team with 34 assists and 20 digs. Lizzy Rowland had 13 kills and seven digs. Jael Wilde and Johnston also had double-digit digs with 15 and 14, respectively. Savannah North and Hallie Remund had four blocks apiece.

“I am incredibly proud of the way our girls played tonight,” Snow Canyon head coach Ryan Rarick said. “The coaching staff really challenged the team after our loss to Enterprise on Tuesday. We had a physically demanding practice yesterday. The girls rose to the challenge tonight and demonstrated mental toughness, tenacity and grit. We were not perfect, but it was a good bounce back from Tuesday against a tough region foe tonight.”

Snow Canyon improves to 2-1 overall and 1-0 in region play. The Lady Warriors will travel to Canyon View on Tuesday. Pine View falls to 14-6 overall and 0-1 in region. The Lady Panthers will host Hurricane on Tuesday.

Richfield 3, Canyon View 1

The Lady Falcons traveled to Richfield for a non-region contest. Every set in the match was hotly contested, but the home team prevailed in four, 25-21, 25-22, 18-25, 25-23.

“We lost a tough one against Richfield,” Canyon View head coach Monica Jensen said. “We played well, though. Overall, it was a great step forward for us.”

Malia Vasi led the team with six kills, five service aces and 15 assists. Jordan Nielson had five blocks. Camry Higgins led the team with 18 digs.

Canyon View falls to 6-6. The Falcons begin region play by hosting Snow Canyon on Tuesday night.

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