Game Details - Boys Volleyball

Much like its first win during the 4A state tournament on Wednesday, top seed Orem rolled through the quarterfinals in relatively easy fashion as it beat No. 9 seed Green Canyon 25-18, 25-10, 25-8. There was moment in the first set when Orem coach Bill Sefita sensed his team playing a little too passive and called a timeout. He got the exact response he was hoping in a dominant performance the rest of the way. “We cannot just be a reactive team, like waiting for that team to do something and then we react to it. We got to be more proactive and playing our own volleyball first, and then just taking care of the little things, and that's what got us to build that big lead in set one,” said Sefita, whose team improved to 24-6 with the win. Orem standout Ben Hone led the Tigers again with 12 kills in the win, with Lucky Jennings chipping in with eight. Hone and Jennings were among Orem’s top contributors on last year’s 4A runner-up team, and they’ll try and get the Tigers over the hump with two more wins on Thursday. Orem will face No. 5 seed Payson in the quarterfinals at 10:15 a.m. “Last year was last year. We can't really dwell in the past. All we can do is just move forward. What can we do better this year? And that's what we're doing right now is taking care of the ball early on and then controlling the controllables,” said Sefita. Late in the season, Sefita said that’s included getting everyone involved in the program. “There are a lot of young players this year. I think this year also is worth figuring out how to connect with every player. I know we haven't done the best job at the beginning of season, but as we're finishing up our season, it's one of the things that we focus heavily on is building player connections,” he said. Along with Hone and Jennings, Luke Wolsey and Aaron Nielsen both had strong performances in the quarterfinals as they each recorded six kills.