Draper • The Bingham volleyball team is of the kind that, over the course of a match, the hitting attack could almost come from anywhere.
But when the going gets tough, senior Selaisa Elisaia is quickly becoming the old stand-by.
And it did get tough for the Miners, at least at the beginning, in a match at Corner Canyon on Tuesday night. After dropping the first set, Bingham (2-0) went to Elisaia time and again in the second.
The net result was a 25-27, 25-10, 25-20, 25-19 victory for the Miners, #3 in Class 6A, against the top-ranked team in Class 5A.
“You’ve got to feed your best hitter and she’s starting to get kills at will,” Bingham coach Melissa Glasker said. “I think she’s that good. When her timing’s right, and the set’s right, it’s tough to stop Selaisa.”
Bingham held a 19-16 lead in the first game, but Corner Canyon (0-1) clawed back and eventually tied at 24-24 with a kill from Katie Beelek. Tied at 25, the Chargers got a point off a dump by setter Seville Likes which was followed by a Beelek service ace.
“We obviously started off slow. I think we just came in kind of slow,” said Bingham senior libero Kendzee Cloward. “When we started to get momentum, we just kind of took over and did what we had to do.”
Storylines<br>* Seleisa Elisaia registered a match-high 14 kills, with seven coming during the second set.<br>*It was Corner Canyon’s first contest of the year. Bingham had defeated North Summit in its opener on Thursday.<br>* Emma Mangum led the Chargers with 13 kills while Madison Brunatti added eight. Bingham’s output included nine putaways from Gabriella Langi.
What the Miners apparently had to do, to get untracked, was to get the ball to Elisaia. The senior, who has committed to play at Cal State Bakersfield, finished the match with a contest-high 14 kills. Half of those came in the second set as Bingham rolled over the home team.
Up 13-7, the Miners scored the next six points — a run that included three kills and a block by Elisaia.
“This is a good team, and we hadn’t been challenged quite like this since the summer,” Glasker said. “I’m impressed with Corner Canyon, they did really, really well.”
Corner Canyon outside hitter Madison Brunatti was playing with protective face gear after suffering a broken nose.
Mindy Wilder, the Chargers’ coach, said that Brunatti’s only practice with the team this year was the one just before meeting up with Bingham in the season-opener.
The Chargers were led by Emma Mangum’s 13 kills and two blocks, but the only lead by the hosts after the first set was a 3-1 lead in the fourth. At that juncture, Bingham quickly went on another six-point run with kills from three different players.
Gabriella Langi collected nine kills for the victors, whose versatile attack included eight kills from Annissa Kehl and seven from Journey Tupea.