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West Valley City • The scene at an early-season volleyball tournament at Hunter High on Saturday resembled the season-ending state playoffs: several games going on at the same time, balls from different matches interrupting play and a barrage of officials' whistles sometimes hard to source.
But the 10 teams at this tournament actually don't have much in the way of recent experience at state. For the ones who have any at all, it's not been a very successful experience.
This tournament was a chance to take the next step, and Taylorsville is the most likely to succeed based on the results.
In the two-day invitational, the Warriors won all nine of their best-of-three matches. Hillcrest, with an 8-1 record, was second while Uintah and Wasatch finished in third and fourth place, respectively, with 6-3 marks.
"There's a lot of teams here that will do all right this year," Taylorsville coach Clint Barnes said. "For us, it's about getting reps and learning. It gives us a chance to clean up things and work on them. We've just got to make ourselves better, and I think we did that in this tournament."
Taylorsville, which started its season Thursday in a lopsided best-of-five loss to Lehi, rolled through its Hunter slate undefeated — but it was eventful.
Against Kearns, the Warriors were down 23-17 in the first game before reeling off seven straight points. Eventually, a kill from Morgan Guevara broke a 24-24 tie and T-ville subdued the Cougars on the next point.
In the last match of the day, Taylorsville needed to beat Cottonwood to be the only unbeaten team at the tournament.
But the Colts forced a deciding third game by beating the Warriors 27-25 in the second. In the third, six straight points by Taylorsville — fueled by Cameron Tuimaiatu's serves — opened a 10-3 lead en route to the win.
"It shows what kind of character we have. Our girls know how to fight," Barnes said. "When they're down, they're not going to give up."
Earlier in the tournament, Taylorsville had beaten Hillcrest 26-24, 25-21. Other than that blemish, the Huskies held their own against rest of the field.
"We had a lot of close games, but our girls are learning how to battle," said Hillcrest coach Sally Williams, whose team was led by outside hitter Becca Ekberg, middle Sarah Hunt and setter Abby Siebers. "They came out on top in most of them, and that's something they haven't done in the past, so it was kind of nice.
Uintah ended up in a third-place deadlock with Wasatch, but earned the tiebreaker by beating the Wasps head-to-head.
That won't be the last time the two teams will meet this season. After realignment, with Uintah moving up to 4A, the squads are now in the same region.
"It's fun to play these big schools, see how we fit in with all of them," Utes coach Jessica Boren said. "It helps us out to see the kind of teams we'll be seeing at region and state.
Setter Lauren Smuin played a consistently positive roll for Uintah over the two days, often saving errant passes from going into the net, while Utes junior outside Codi Woolard provided punch when Smuin got the ball in that direction.
"She was putting balls away the whole weekend," Boren said.