Darnell Dickson/Daily Herald

When you play against the blur that is the Maple Mountain girls volleyball team, the tempo is gonna get you.

The Golden Eagles are small — no one in the starting lineup is taller than 5-foot-11 — but they are mighty. Pushing the tempo and serving tough, Maple Mountain swept rival Salem Hills on Tuesday (25-19, 25-12, 25-22) to stay unbeaten in Region 9 play and send notice that it is on the road to a state tournament run.

“I think our team has really good unity on and off the court,” said Golden Eagles senior outside hitter Gracie Keisel, who was on fire offensively all night. “We’ve played together for a few years and the more you play together the easier it is to connect. If you’re not connected, you have a playing-for-yourself thing. On our team, we all try and play for each other. If someone makes a mistake we just pick each other up. This team is unselfish.”

Second-year coach Adam Longmore said he likes where his team is headed right now.

“There’s a maturity with this group,” he said. “I think we’re more confident and our skills are better. Our offense is faster when we pass well. The tempo of our offense is really tough for anybody. I think we’re starting to believe a little bit and that’s really a big influence on how we perform. We’re starting to believe we can dig anyone and we can serve anybody out of system.”

Darnell Dickson/Daily Herald

Set 1 was tied at 12-12 when Maple Mountain surged ahead, getting a kill from Keisel and an ace from Marly Pratt to take a 15-12 advantage. Salem Hills closed to 22-19 on a kill from Tessa Treanor but the Golden Eagles took control from there with attacks from Siale Unufe and Keisel and another service ace by Pratt for the 25-19 victory.

Maple Mountain got out to a 5-1 lead in Set 2 and cruised to a win. Keisel got the final two points of the set with kills and the Golden Eagles won 25-12 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

Salem Hill trailed 20-15 in Set 3 responded behind the offense of Treanor, who scored on four straight swings to give the home team a 21-20 lead. Keisel ended the run with a kill of her own, followed by a Skyhawks error and a Pratt kill for a 23-21 Maple Mountain advantage. Morgan Pratt teamed up with her sister for two more kills, including the winner at 25-22.

Maple Mountain (4-0 Region 9, 12-2 overall) is ranked third in the state by MaxPreps behind Mountain and Bountiful, all 5A teams expected to challenge for a title. The Golden Eagles have played the Braves, the defending state champions, twice and been swept both times.

“We played Bountiful early and we didn’t play great,” Longmore said. “Then we got better. They got better, too, but I feel like we got a lot better and competed with them the second time we played. We were ahead in the second set and lost by three and we were up by five or six in the third set and lost by two. If we can continue to get better by the end of the year, we’ll see who’s best. It all comes down to confidence and belief.”

Darnell Dickson/Daily Herald

Keisel added: “We’ve learned that we can play against anyone even if we’re small. We can play defense against anyone and we can pass and serve against the toughest teams.”

Maple Mountain will play at Provo on Thursday.

Salem Hills (3-1, 5-3) battles Springville at home on Thursday.

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