Lady Badgers power up in five-set match to win Region XVIII tourney

By James Tilson

Sports editor

11-14-2019

EPHRAIM—The Snow College volleyball team punched its ticket to the NJCAA National Championship last Saturday by winning a five set come-from-behind match against Utah State University-Eastern in the finals of the Region XVIII Tournament.

This is the first region title for the Badgers, and the second straight bid for the national tournament. Last year, the Badgers qualified for the national tournament by receiving an at-large bid.

“I don’t think there could have been a more fitting conclusion to this tournament—to have the two highest seeded teams battling it out and to go to five sets—that was such a well-contested match,” said Snow College Coach Jeff Reynolds. “USU-E had such an amazing season; what a great group of players. You have to give them a ton of credit for battling through their five-game match last night against a tough team from Southern Idaho, then to come out again today. That’s a really good team and they deserve a ton of credit.”

Reynolds explained how his team has an advantage on most teams by countering what they like to do. “You want to take them out of rhythm. The stat that’s not in any stat sheet is how well we can disrupt what they are trying to do. Everybody did a really nice job of disrupting what the other team wanted to do.”

The 2019 NJCAA National Tournament will be held in Hutchison, Kan. on Nov. 21-23. Snow will find out their opponents in the coming week.