By Julie Slama | [email protected]

All season, the Huskies hustled, hit and never quit.

Under new head coach, Melissa Guymon, Hillcrest volleyball beat Highland in region play, ending up 1-13 and finishing 3-24 overall. Through the season, the players focused on improving their serving and passing.

“Our last home game versus East, our senior night, we ended up losing in five (matches), but our serving was phenomenal, tougher, more precise, and our passing overall was 1.9, which was great for us,” she said, adding that passing is evaluated on a zero to three scale, with three as the best pass possible.

Although they won an earlier game against Highland High, where Guymon said the team’s overall offense was better, the East High game showed their progress with serves and passes.

Hillcrest’s other wins were against Cyprus and Ben Lomond high schools. The Huskies were eliminated in the first round of state playoffs by Timpview High, which went on to win the state title.

Guymon, who said that “we’re grateful to be able to play this year,” only had her sophomore team quarantined. All players completed health symptom checks and wore masks when they weren’t playing on the court.

Next year, Guymon said that she is relying on sophomore varsity players Aryanna Hinckley and Emma Walters to lead the team, which will have a lot of younger players, including some eighth-graders who played in a middle school league this fall.

“We have quite a few young kids who are going to make a big impact,” she said.