The North Summit Braves volleyball team is entering playoff games as the #3 seed.
The team also starts the tournament with a big target on its back. The Braves are the reigning 2A state champions. They’ve won it five out of the last six years.
The current season started a bit rough. It took the team awhile to figure out what position worked best for each player. Many players moved around and played different roles, but once the chemistry was figured out they started to win matches. However, they lost a few in region play this season.
Head coach Samantha Stevens said it is frustrating since teams who beat them acted as if they had just won the state championship.
“We lost in North Sevier this year. And I said, In all my years of coaching, I've never lost, our team has never lost to North Sevier. So to them. It is like maybe winning the state championship, you know what I mean? Like, it's a big deal for other teams to beat us. And I know that they want to beat North Summit, because we are, you know, we are good. And a lot of them had to beat us for a long, long time.”
The Braves are a very young team. They only have three seniors. Stevens said that having a lot of young players enables them to carry over the momentum into each season and not have rebuilding years.
“And, and we tell our team, you know, we it's like trying to get over the hump. And once they finally got over the hump, like, we don't believe in rebuilding years. Like we're working to be a contender for state every year. And it's not, Oh, we lost our best hitter, or we lost a great setter, it's how can we replace that? How can we move someone to that spot to get the job done or to do what we need to do to be to be working towards that goal of playing for state?
To prepare for the playoffs the team is working on drills and doing conditioning workouts in hopes that no other team outworks them.
Many of the players including junior middle blocker Presley Peterson are excited about the chance to win another state title.
She said that having the opportunity to play in two state games already was unreal to her and “one of the best feelings ever.”
She said she’d love a third championship win.
The Braves will compete in the playoffs starting October 28th at the Sevier Valley Center on the campus of Snow College in Richfield.