Tuesday night was a perfect senior night for the Miners men's volleyball team in its inaugural season. The Miners capped off the festivities with a 3-1 win over Stansbury.
The night began with eight Park City seniors trotting out with their families to the crowd's awards. They also received leis, flowers and individual banners depicting each of them that hung above the bleachers at Park City High School. The eight included Colter Bryson, Matthew Malloy, Ben Taylor, Grayson Bailey, Luke Jackson, Ben Heskett, Ty Hastings and Mason Lambert.
Park City dominated the match and took the first set. The Stallions (2-9) fought back to take the second set, but the Miners rallied from there to win their second straight. The Miners went 12-6 in their first year, with superstar Ben Taylor still leading the way.
Taylor's acrobatic spike punished what the Stallions didn't put away, and the Park City crowd applauded. One enthusiastic fan even had the entire home crowd stand up and make a fuss between the two sets, even if it was only for a quick photo-op.
“It's a good game to come back and warm up,” Miners head coach Kai Nielsen said. “I just got back from spring break, so I was a little rusty all around.”
Nielsen's team's last match came nearly two weeks before Tuesday's contest, a 3-set win over Cottonwood on April 11.
Nielsen took advantage of Tuesday's day off, giving his best to those involved who seemed to be lacking in calls around the net. He was also active during matches, giving specific instructions to specific players about formations, cleat placement, and who to target.
“We have three regular season games remaining. Tooele, Murray and Hillcrest are still on the board, and all three away games remain. “It's going to be a pretty busy week because we're going to play today, tomorrow, Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” Nielsen added of the team's future plans.
All five of these games this week were on the road, with Senior Night being the Miners' final home game. They are committed to returning home for the postseason, which begins May 10th.
“They were great guys to start this group,” Nielsen said of the first team.
“They had a really good culture and just happened to be really good at volleyball, so it was a fun year.”
Taylor agreed that the win was great despite some sloppy play at times. He said the team will work to correct communication and unforced errors going forward.
“I mean, I hope so!” Taylor exclaimed about the possibility of a home playoff game. “I don't really know how the playoffs are going to go. We just want to be on the other side of Orem, they're really good.”
Taylor followed with a laugh, hinting at an underlying insecurity. He's right. Orem is 17-2 and ranked No. 5 in the state and No. 139 in the country, according to MaxPreps.
“My parents were here, my brother was here, my friends were here, it was all there,” Taylor added of the celebration.
“I think my favorite moment for (our) team was when Colter (Bryson, also a senior) did a backflip right in the huddle. It was really cool and really got the team excited before the game. Ta.”
Bryson's backflip caught longtime Park City announcer Scott Chester off guard. He was surprised by what he had just seen. Whatever works for the team. The next game against Tooele is scheduled for Wednesday at 4pm at Tooele High School.