Inevitable: Maple Mountain rolls to second straight 5A boys volleyball title
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- Maple Mountain head coach Napoleon Galang (center) celebrates with his team after winning the 5A boys volleyball state finals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- The Maple Mountain boys volleyball team celebrates winning the 5A state title at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- The Maple Mountain boys volleyball team celebrates winning the 5A state title at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Maple Mountain fans celebrate a 5A boys volleyball state championship at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Members of the Wasatch boys volleyball team console each other after losing to Maple Mountain in the 5A state finals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Brady Hulme of Wasatch (23) holds up the runner-up trophy after the 5A boys volleyball state finals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
Nothing or no one was going to stop Maple Mountain from marching to its second straight 5A boys volleyball state title.
The Golden Eagles were dominant from start to finish on Saturday at the UCCU Center against Wasatch in a 25-16, 25-15, 25-15 sweep, the program’s 42nd straight win against Utah competition dating back to March of 2024.
“It looks easy, but we’ve had our struggles,” Maple Mountain head coach Napoleon Galang said. “It’s just so satisfying to see it pay off in the end.”
The Golden Eagles boast perhaps the best players at their positions in the state — 6-foot-7 senior outside hitter and BYU signee Trey Thornton, 6-7 junior setter Taft Hillman and 6-6 senior middle blocker Manase Storey — so it’s no wonder they were the No. 1 seed and expected to be in the state final.
Many teams fold under that kind of pressure.
Not this one.
“It’s a blessing that we have this kind of confidence,” said Thornton, who had 22 kills in his final match. “Everybody is a little bit scared to play us. Honestly, I’ve heard lost of people in the hallways talking, ‘Ooh, there’s Maple Mountain. We gotta get Maple Mountain.’ But staying humble has really helped us get here. Nothing’s been given to us.”
No. 4 Wasatch, which upset No. 2 Bountiful in the semifinals, has a good club led by pin hitters Chase Billeter and JJ Serre. But the Wasps had no answers for the Maple Mountain offense directed by Hillman (40 assists) with such deft ability.
“Credit to Taft, he runs a great offense,” Thornton said. “Our passing is the best in the state. Every single game, we outperform in the passing category. Having that pass really sets up our offense to just go and hammer balls.”
Wasatch led just four times the entire match under the relentless pressure from Maple Mountain. A pair of aces from Hillman got the Golden Eagles off to a great start in Set 1 and Hillman’s exquisite feed to Thornton from the back row for a kill produced a 15-6 lead. Hillman and Storey teamed up for a block and Hillman killed an overpass to get to set point. A net violation by Wasatch resulted in a 25-16 win for Maple Mountain.
Thorton was unstoppable to start Set 2, ripping off seven kills as the Golden Eagles took an 11-7 lead.
“Having a target on my back makes me play smarter,” Thornton said. “It really helps having a team that uplifts me and backs me up every single point. Without them, I don’t think I could do it. We’re hungry for every single point and we’re going aggressively every point.”
An ace from Storey made the score 18-10 and Thornton added two more kills in a 25-15 victory.
Maple Mountain went on a 9-0 run early in Set 3, with Thornton and Abe Hawkins logging two blocks and two kills apiece, for a 13-3 lead and the Golden Eagles would not be denied on their way to the sweep.
Despite their dominating play, Galang said Maple Mountain always approaches every match the same way.
“We teach them that we are beatable, and we play with a chip on our shoulder,” he said. “We know that we’ve had a target on our back since the first day of the season. So we teach them that on any given day, anyone’s coming after us. So we tell them, ‘You’ve got to play hard, no matter what, no matter who’s on the other side of the court.’ No matter what the score is, they play hard.”
Besides Thornton, Hillman and Storey, Maple Mountain relied on Hawkins, junior outside hitter Matheus Borges and a pair of freshmen — outside hitter Kimball Olsen and libero McKay Beattie — in posting a 29-1 mark in 2025, with the only loss to Windward (Calif.) at an out-of-state tournament in March.
“We had a lot of returning players and we had some new freshmen coming to the open gyms,” Galang said. “We had this pre-season tournament where we knew there was something special about this team. From Day 1 they knew what they wanted, and they worked so hard every day in practice for that. All our players have matured so it’s not just the ‘Trey Show.’
“We said when we finished last year we wanted to do this back to back. So it’s just a testament to how hard the boys worked and how hard my coaching staff worked to get to this point.”
Storey added: “We kind of knew from the start, but it was very questionable, because we had new players. Two seniors were gone, and out of nowhere, these two freshmen came in, and they just kind of saved our butts for what we needed. This feeling, I’ll never get over it. It’s unforgettable.”
