HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL

Earlier this season, Kelsey Rhoades decided her Highland volleyball team needed to bond. The Rams were fielding a young team, uncharacteristically so, and their head coach believes in bonding like Harry Potter believes in magic.

So Rhoades took the team to hot yoga.

"It seems so weird, but they loved it," Rhoades said. "They just loved it, and it's something they can laugh and bond and talk about."

Turns out, senior setter Drew Simmons' mom had a connection to a yoga studio in town, so the Rams woke up early one morning and went. Together, they meditated, stretched, everything.

Soon, as they kept getting together for these kinds of activities, Rhoades realized it was paying dividends: Highland started the season 2-1. Then the club captured the Peg Peterson Tournament championship last weekend, dispatching two opponents in straight sets. Then, on Tuesday night, Highland secured a 3-0 (2520, 25-15, 25-20) win over Century, winning its fourth straight match - and reassuring Rhoades that these hangouts were working

"We were just mentioning it with the team: The energy was a little bit off today with us," Rhoades said after the match. "They still played really well, but we came off a big weekend obviously, with the Peg Peterson tournament and whatnot, but luckily they were able to pull it out."

You couldn't always tell, not with the way the Rams posted vicious blocks and delivered sharp kills, but early on, their head coach felt like they looked flat. Uninspired. Usually, Rhoades says, the team is fired up during matches, yelling and screaming and encouraging their teammates, but they weren't on Tuesday. On the court, that led to a few miscommunications, a few mistakes.

So in the huddle, Rhoades asked players to zoom in on smaller things. Some focused on Century's hitters. "They just zone in on the hitter," Rhoades said, "and read what they're going to do so we can make a defensive move off of that." It must have worked wonders. The Rams seldom trailed the Diamondbacks, but when they did - like early in Set 3 - they came rallying back.

More often, Highland found itself leading. Junior Kaylen Hay produced 10 kills that traveled faster than the DeLorean in Back to the Future. Senior Jenna Kearns leaped for nine kills. Simmons supplied 14 assists that floated in the air like they belonged on a cloud. The Rams kept making substitutions, too, but they never seemed to miss a beat.

More importantly, Highland did well to bottle up Century's group of playmakers: Seniors Adee Butler, Taylor Smith and Marissa Allen. In practice earlier this week, Rhoades made one thing clear to her team: We can't let those three beat us. They drilled blocking like Tuesday's match was a state tournament matchup, not one in early September. It worked wonders.

"They knew that their job was to take these three players down," Rhoades said. "So I feel like we did that. There were only a few times that they really got past our block. Otherwise, we're either getting solid touches or a full-on block."

It's also remarkable that Highland authored this sweep - and its sterling start to the season — because of this year's team makeup. The Rams roster just three seniors. The rest are juniors and sophomores, and a lot of them played JV last season: Libero Claire Fellows, defensive specialists Callie Schwartz and Maggie Fullmer, middle blocker Tausi Young, even opposite hitter Jenna Riley, who split time between the JV and varsity squads.

That's the group that has helped the Rams win four of their first five matches of the season. It begs what feels like a fair question: How on earth have they developed so quickly?

"It sounds dumb, but team bonding, honestly," Rhoades said. "We make them spend time together, just getting to know (each other), because it has a lot to do with trust. They have to trust one another on the court, or else chaos starts happening. So when they really enjoy being around one another and can trust the people that are on the court with them, it'll make a team night and day (different)."

That's what led Rhoades to put together a hot yoga session for her group, but it hardly stopped there.

The Rams go to lunch with each other, and every week ahead of matches, they have team dinners at players' families' homes. Earlier this season, the team ordered Mexican food and visited Heber Hatchets Axe Throwing. Later this week, the team will have sweet pork burritos.

For Highland, those might come in handy soon. The Rams' 5A District 5/6 play starts next week with a trip to Rigby. Then they will play in the Bonneville Classic in Idaho Falls. Then they'll play Madison and, well, you get the idea.

Good thing the Rams like each other. To their head coach, their hatchetthrowing skills need some work.

"We're gonna stick to volleyball," Rhoades laughed.