Perry boys volleyball played very well this year making it to the 6A Quarterfinals AIA State Volleyball Championship. They played Desert Vista in a hard fought battle but they fell short, losing all three sets.

For the sixth year in a row the Pumas (22-13-1) finished inside the top 8 in Arizona’s 6A division; and they also finished second in the Premier Region (5-3), finishing three games behind Chandler. Coach Ryan Tolman stated, “We have great athletes who are committed to being good volleyball players. We have a pretty good freshman class every year, not every high school gets to keep as many kids as we do.” The team did excellent executing their techniques this season by averaging 11 kills per set, a .236 hitting percentage,a total of 159 blocks and 180 serving aces which are all above the national averages.

The players definitely were team oriented with a total of 906 assists this season which averaged out 10.5 assists per set. The determination and focus they put in this season helped them take down teams like Hamilton, Brophy College Prep, and Corona Del sol and those victories helped lead them this year. “We had a big win at home against Brophy that really got the rest of the season going,” Tolman said. The team had some guys step up from last year and really play their heart out.

Senior Jacob Bell leads the team with 102 kills this season and a kill percentage of 56.4, which is a massive increase from last season in which he only had 2 kills. The amount of sets played improved tremendously from only playing in three last year, to playing in a total of sixty-six this season.

Junior Daxton Tolman also had a major improvement from last year. Last year as a sophomore he played 101 sets  and only had a total of 34 kills with a kill percentage of 35.8 this year as a junior he played only 77 sets and nearly had as many kills as last year with 94 and a kill percentage of 46.1. The improvements in the individual players has played a huge role in why they were back in the playoffs once again.

This year the motto for the boy was Consistently Radical which means “thorough or far reaching” is a reason why they did so well. This motto helped the boys stay dedicated to the team and is part of the reason they were able to go out and shock some of the teams they were playing. “If you’re radical you’re far reaching or thorough at something and consistently means you’re consistent at something and I believe the guys did a good job going the extra mile trying to fight everyday a little bit extra, and I think they did a great job,” Tolman stated.

The team had a great season and all of Perry is looking forward to what they are going to do next year once again, maybe this time they will bring the championship home.