The boys volleyball team went undefeated at the Epic Tourneys Boys Volleyball Invite at the ASU convention center. The team played mostly 4A schools at that tournament which included: Red Mountain, Cienega, Mesa, Boulder Creek, Canyon View, and American Leadership Academy in Gilbert. Out of the 80 schools invited, the team was Citrus Division Champions due to the fact that they earned six wins throughout the tournament and did not drop a set. They beat Cienega in the championship game to get the win.
For this season in total they have not lost a match. The team had multiple D1 committed athletes which is rare because opportunities for boys volleyball players at the collegiate level are rare. This year has gone well for the boys with a seven game winning streak at the moment. The team is also ranked first in the state above O’Conner.
Junior Collin Morrissey played middle blocker for the team at the tournament. Morrissey has played volleyball for four years and is committed to Ball State University in Indiana. He appreciates the way that the team plays together and the coaches that they have. Morrissey stated, “I think the highlight of the season is just being able to play with the team and to be able to…win a lot of games and to have a good environment to play in and have great coaches.” Despite the fact that the season is only halfway through the team has already found the connection needed to play well together.
Ryan Tolman has coached volleyball for 23 years and he started at Desert Vista, but has coached at Perry for ten years and is also a Spanish teacher. Tolman remarked that the talent level is high for this group of athletes. He said, “We’ve got a bunch of boys that are just playing at a really high level, extremely talented. Even our bench guys that don’t start, I mean, we have a half a dozen kids on that bench that would start on almost any other team in the state.” Tolman goes on to mention that the team is currently expected to win state championships.
Last year the boys volleyball team was 6A state champs, but they did lose seven seniors. Regardless of that the boys volleyball team has still played well, so far they have amassed seven wins and two losses for regular season games. Junior Cooper Rake mentioned, “We’re still doing good because most of the [varsity] team last year was sophomores, so… we lost a lot of seniors, but we are still doing good without them.” Rake, who has played volleyball for three years, was confident that the volleyball team has still done well without some of their key players from last year.
The boys volleyball program played well not only indoors, but also on sand. Most of the boys who play indoor volleyball are also on the beach volleyball team coached by Fred Mann. That team won 6A state championships despite the fact that the beach volleyball team was relatively new compared to the other sports teams on campus.
