Cottonwood soccer, volleyball teams endure tough seasons

Colts’ soccer, volleyball teams endure subpar seasons

Experience goes a long way in determining a team’s chances of success. Cottonwood High’s volleyball and girls soccer teams just didn’t have enough of it this season.

The Colts’ volleyball squad, which lost its entire starting lineup to graduation last year, was 3-16 overall as of our press deadline and in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in more than 10 years. Meanwhile, the girls soccer team reached postseason, but still finished 3-11-3 overall.

Volleyball

Following a 23-win season in which they finished sixth at the state tournament, the Colts have been unable to match that success this year. Cottonwood started the season 2-5, but had lost 11 of their next 12 matches with three contests remaining in the regular season.

Cottonwood, which has been swept 11 times, was 1-6 in Region 3 with matches remaining against Copper Hills (Oct. 18), West Jordan (Oct. 25) and Alta (Oct. 27).

The Colts swept Copper Hills 3-0 on Sept. 22 (25-16, 25-13, 25-13) but lost their next five matches to West Jordan, Alta, Box Elder, Brighton and Jordan. Limi Tipoai had seven kills and 10 digs against the Grizzlies, while Taylor Drowne distributed 20 assists. Rachel Wyss had 11 kills and 12 digs against West Jordan, and seven kills and nine digs against Jordan.

Girls soccer

Scoring – on both ends of the field – was a seasonlong issue for the Colts, who allowed 70 goals and scored only 15. Still, Cottonwood (2-6-2 region) made the playoffs and lost to Davis in the first round 9-1. The Darts jumped out to a 6-0 halftime lead and never looked back to prevail.

After winning 18 games over the previous two seasons, all signs pointed to a rebuilding year for the Colts. Cottonwood lost eight seniors to graduation and had a new coach in Angela Hamilton. The Colts allowed four or more goals in 11 games, were shut out six times and averaged less than a goal per game.

Cottonwood lost to Alta 8-0 on Sept. 20, defeated West Jordan 3-0 on Sept. 22 and tied Copper Hills 1-1 on Sept. 27 before losing three straight to Jordan (5-0), Brighton (5-1) and Davis.

Brooke Evans scored five goals to pace the Colts this season. Kirstine Adamson had two goals and Holly and Sarah Taylor had one apiece. Miranda Newsome had two shutouts in the nets.