Randee Romero is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Red Mountain High School for AZPreps365.com

The Red Mountain boys volleyball team brought out the sweeps against Sunnyslope Wednesday night as the Mountain Lions beat the Vikings in three straight sets, 25-11, 25-19, 25-19.

Red Mountain went into Wednesday’s match with a win on their record from Tuesday’s match against Skyline. The Mountain Lions dominated 3-0 against Skyline and picked up right where they left off on Wednesday against the Vikings. 

The Mountain Lions started the game with a fast assertion of dominance. The first set quickly reached the score of 15-3 with Red Mountain’ going on a 12-0 run. The Mountain Lions defense made the Vikings struggle to put points on the board. Red Mountain’s defense was carried by heavy blocks from a pair of seniors, middle blocker Oliver Wolflig and right side, Kaden Hall. The set ended 25-11.

“Oliver did really well in the first set. Nobody could get the ball through him,” Red Mountain coach Jeremy Hutter said.

The second set started off with the same dominance from Red Mountain. The Mountain Lions pulled ahead quickly and created a 15-4 lead. However, the Vikings rallied and started to make creative plays. The Vikings steadily closed the gap and eventually tied the score at 18.

After extended rallies from both sides, the Mountain Lions gained an edge to put them ahead. Sunnyslope had only put up one more point in the set while the Mountain Lions grabbed five more. A big single block from Wolflig ended the intense second set, 25-19. 

The third set remained close throughout with the largest lead from the Mountain Lions being only four points until they stretched their lead to 25-19 at the end.

“Our defense has definitely started to improve," Hutter said. "It made the difference when we were passing off the net, really getting it to our target and just being really consistent.” 

The Mountain Lions' defensive groove carried them through the Vikings' comeback. Hutter took responsibility for the Mountain Lions' second-set hiccup.

“I changed up the lineup a little bit in the middle, which was something we haven’t really practiced,” Hutter said. “It was something they weren’t really comfortable with.” 

Although the Vikings came up short, they showed a lot of fight and energy throughout the match. 

What helped us was the communication and the fire on the court when we are making points,” Sunnyslope coach Brooke LeTarte said.

LeTarte had high expectations of Red Mountain going into the match, but the Vikings were ready to play. The Vikings are competing in their first season as a program and used their underdog mentality to push the energy to the last point of play. 

“We understand that we’re the underdogs, but we want to play up to that level and compete," LeTarte said. “It’s exciting to play teams at this level. We’re here for a reason. Let's show these teams we’re playing that we have the ability to be up there and play against these programs.”

Mental toughness on the other side of the court was challenged in the close sets.

“We got in our heads a little bit in the second set and let off, but we came back,” said Red Mountain senior setter Adam Seibal. “If one person is down the whole team goes down, so if one person is up it brings the team up, so that's how individual people got us back on track. Aidan (Current) brings the biggest energy on our team.” 

“We were trying to speed things up and were trying to do a little too much," Wolflig said. "We were trying to pound the ball and block really hard and we all just needed to do our own direct job.” 

The second win in a row had the Mountain Lions in high spirits after the match.

“It’s good to have the win because we’re a lot more confident,” Seibal said. “We came in a little too confident this season, but we’re cleaning it up a little, finding what works.”

“Starting off the week with a win really boosted our confidence and really prepared them for tonight's match,” Hutter said. “Two 3-0 wins back to back is really good for them going into tomorrow.”

The Mountain Lions (4-2, 1-0) will play at Dobson (1-5, 0-1) at 5 p.m. Thursday.

Sunnyslope (2-4)  will host Tucson (3-4) at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.