State Volleyball Roundup: Lehi beats Westlake for third place in 6A
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- Lehi’s Ashton Shewell (15) and his teammates celebrate a point in the 6A boys volleyball state semifinals against Bingham at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Lehi boys volleyball coach Kolby Shewell gives instructions during the 6A boys volleyball state semifinals against Bingham at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- The Lehi boys volleyball team takes a knee as trainers attend to teammate Taite Stewart in the 6A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Lehi’s Taite Stewart (center) sits with his parents after injuring his knee against Bingham in the 6A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Lehi’s Taite Stewart serves the ball against Bingham in the 6A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Lehi’s Dylan Avery (12) takes a swing in the 6A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Westlake’s Kilika Tafa takes a swing against Mountain Ridge in the 6A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Westlake’s Kyson Ryrie takes a swing against Mountain Ridge in the 6A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Westlake’s Kilika Tafa digs a ball against Mountain Ridge in the 6A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Westlake’s Keagan Cundiff sets the ball against Mountain Ridge in the 6A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Westlake’s Kilika Tafa takes a swing against Mountain Ridge in the 6A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Maple Mountain’s Taft Hillman sets the ball during a 5A boys volleyball state semifinal against Alta at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Maple Mountain’s Trey Thornton takes a swing against Alta in the 5A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- The Maple Mountain boys volleyball team celebrates a win in the 5A state tournament at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Corbin Batista, son of former BYU volleyball great Victor Batista (15), competes for Alta in the 5A State Volleyball Tournament at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- JJ Serre of Wasatch (35) and his teammates celebrate after defeating Bountiful in the 5A state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- JJ Serre of Wasatch tips the ball against Bountiful in the 5A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Chase Billeter of Wasatch takes a swing against Bountiful in the 5A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Everett Saunders of Wasatch passes the ball against Bountiful in the 5A boys volleyball state semifinals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Corbin Batista, son of former BYU volleyball great Victor Batista, competes for Alta in the 5A State Volleyball Tournament at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Former BYU men’s volleyball great Victor Batista (in red shirt) watches his son Corbin compete for Alta in the 5A state tournament at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Corbin Batista, son of former BYU volleyball great Victor Batista, competes for Alta in the 5A State Volleyball Tournament at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
A pair of Utah Valley teams were unceremoniously dumped from the semifinals in 6A on Saturday morning.
No. 2 seed Westlake and No. 4 seed Lehi were hoping to have a Region 3 repeat in the final (Pleasant Grove won last year’s 6A title) but were both swept by red-hot teams from Region 2. No. 3 Mountain Ridge beat the Thunder and top-seed Bingham took care of the Pioneers.
Westlake and Lehi met in the third-place match a few hours later, and the Pioneers won a tight second set to force a third, then won that third set handily.
Saturday afternoon, Bingham (25-4) continued its stellar play with a 3-1 (25-20, 25-19, 23-25, 25-18) victory against Mountain Ridge to win the 6A championship.
The Miners dominated the first set against Lehi in the semifinal but the Pioneers were on a good run in the second when senior middle blocker Taite Stewart injured his knee, which caused a 15-minute delay as he was attended to by trainers. Lehi still managed to tie the set at 25-all but an untimely net violation cost the Pioneers a point. Bingham took the advantage and won 27-25.
Lehi played well in the third set but Bingham got a kill from sophomore Brody Siddoway to end things at 25-22, sending the Miners to the championship match.
“We played really well in that second set,” Lehi coach Kolby Shewell said. “Then we had the injury (to Stewart). We lost some momentum and got a little emotional and we couldn’t finish it. We played really well in the third set too. But Bingham is such a strong team and they capitalized.”
Westlake fought Mountain Ridge in the first set of its semifinal with ties at 19, 20, 21 and 22. Senior Curtis Fowler smashed a kill for the Sentinels for a 23-22 lead, then a tip by Gabe Geersten pushed them to match point. A Thunder hitting error gave Mountain Ridge a 25-23 win.
The second and third sets belonged to the Sentinels, who raced to big leads and never let up in earning a shot at the 6A title.
The loss ended Westlake’s 14-match win streak.
The Thunder won the first set of the third-place match 25-21, but Lehi managed to squeeze a close victory in the second to force a third. In the third set, a block by senior Dylan Avery and sophomore Ty Reynolds gave the Pioneers at 12-8 lead. Down the stretch, Lehi made all the right plays at the net. Reynolds won a joust and contributed a block for a 23-17 advantage. Sophomore Ashton Shewell won a joust then scored on a swing to get to match point at 24-18. Senior Ian Wilson threw up a block on the next Westlake attack and Lehi finished on top of its Region 3 rival.
“We lost to Westlake twice this season so the third time’s a charm,” Coach Shewell said. “I was really proud of the way the boys played today.”
Ashton Shewell, the coach’s son, led Lehi with 16 kills.
“I love coaching him because he’s such a competitor,” Coach Shewell said. “He always wants to win and always expects excellence no matter what he’s doing. He’s such a phenomenal athlete and he’s just worked so hard.”
In the fifth place match, No. 9 Corner Canyon held off No. 7 Lone Peak 2-1 (25-21, 27-29, 29-27), with the Knights ending up seventh.
5A Semifinals
Maple Mountain had a big challenge in the semifinals against No. 4 Alta, especially after the Hawks outlasted the Golden Eagles 31-29 in Set 1. The match was billed as a showdown between two future BYU teammates in Maple Mountain’s Trey Thornton and Alta’s Corbin Batista, and the two hitters didn’t disappoint. Thornton finished with 20 kills and Batista 19.
The Golden Eagles rebounded from that first-set loss to win the next three sets. Manase Story blasted three straight aces serves to get to set point in the second set, a 25-16 Maple Mountain win. Set 3 was tied at 21 but an ace from junior Matheus Borges gave the Golden Eagles a 22-21 edge. At set point, Thornton absolutely crushed a ball into the floor for the winner.
Maple Mountain made Set 3 interesting after taking a 24-17 lead and allowed Alta to close to 24-22 before Thornton went off the block to finish things off.
“We really talk in our huddles,” senior middle blocker Manase Storey said. “Trey, our other team captain, he really got us together (after the loss in Set 1). As soon as we got on the court we really meshed together. We were tense, but it was a relaxed tense. It’s weird because when we play super intense, we don’t play very well, but when we’re relaxed and we’re trusting each other, and we’re playing for each other and not ourselves, that’s when we really start to do well.”
Wasatch needed five sets to get past No. 14 Olympus in the second round and No. 6 Box Elder in the quarterfinals on Friday, and also lost to No. 2 Bountiful 3-1 back in March. So the Wasps went into the semifinals as a heavy underdog.
Wasatch got off to a great start and won Set 1 25-20 but the Red Hawks rebounded with a 17-25 win in Set 2. Behind outstanding pin hitters JJ Serre and Chase Billeter, the Wasps won Set 3 25-21 and rode that momentum into the fourth set, taking a 19-14 lead on a kill from senior middle Alec Slater. Billeter’s kill got Wasatch to match point at 24-19 and Serre tooled the block for the winner.
No. 10 Springville played for fifth place against No. 5 Viewmont (score not reported) and No. 13 Spanish Fork topped No. 14 Olympus 2-0 (25-20) for sixth place.
