High school girls volleyball: North Sevier captures first state title since 1981

The top seeded North Sevier volleyball team blasted through the 2A tournament for its first state championship since 1981.
The Wolves beat their Region 15 rival North Summit Saturday to claim the championship in a 3-1 battle at the Sevier Valley Center in Richfield, finishing the season with a 31-1 record.
“This is a great unit,” said Michelle Roberts, now in her third year as North Sevier’s head coach. “It’s a team that plays together, where every player is important and they all have roles to play. They all step up and do their roles.”
One of the big focuses of the season for North Sevier was to keep its side of the net as clean as possible, Roberts said. The strategy worked.
“Our setter did an amazing job today,” Roberts said of senior Swayzee Mason. “She really takes lemons and makes lemonade for us.”
Mason said she was just doing her part to help her teammates.
“Our game plan was to come out with as much momentum as we could, get ahead, get in their heads and do what we needed to do,” Mason said.
“When we got down, we just have a timeout and pick it back up. In practice, we’d have really good past volleyball players come in and play. Our coach also taught us about visualizing the game and what we’d do if we made a mistake.”
North Sevier set the pace early Saturday, whipping up a 25-15 win in the first set. Senior Trey Torgerson smacked multiple kills, helping to establish the pace.
“I have spent so many years in the gym until midnight hitting the ball to the point that I couldn’t feel my fingers,” Torgerson said. “Swinging hard has a lot of work to it.”
Being able to hold the championship trophy overhead was something she was able to share with her twin sister, Cale.
“It means the world to be here with her,” Trey Torgerson said. “She’s my best friend and we spend every single minute together.”
Cale Torgerson also was able to keep the pressure on at the net.
“We’ve worked so hard together,” she said. “I think during this season we’ve learned how to control the games we play and that’s helped us win.”
Being able to keep the service on their side of the court was key Saturday. The only time North Sevier wasn’t able to control the pace was during the second set, when North Summit came up with a 25-23 win.
However, North Sevier was able to reset and control the final two sets, winning them 25-17 and 25-13, respectively.
“We were able to put it away and just play offense,” Cale Torgerson said.
North Sevier beat Grand, San Juan and inter-country rival South Sevier on its tournament road to the final match of the year.
“It feels a little unreal,” said Daynna Anderson, one of five seniors North Sevier bids farewell to this year. “We’ve been working so hard to get to this point. Now that we have it in our hands, it’s amazing. This is my family.”