High school volleyball: Asiah Sopoaga leads the way as Copper Hills beats Corner Canyon

OREM — No. 1 seed Copper Hills dug deep in the third set to win its second straight game without dropping a set in the 6A volleyball state playoffs. The Grizzlies defeated No. 9 Corner Canyon 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 27-25) to advance to the semifinals, where they will take on No. 4 Lone Peak on Saturday.         

“They (Corner Canyon) come from a tough region and we expected a fight. They’re aggressive, they swing and they’re well-coached. I thought we did a good job of serving tough and keeping them out of system. It gave us some more opportunities to score points,” Copper Hills head coach Silver Fonua said.

After winning the first two sets, the Grizzlies were challenged in the third set, when Corner Canyon had set point to force a fourth set. Copper Hills was able to get out of the third set unscathed as Asiah Sopoaga had the final two kills of the set to take the match for the Grizzlies.

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“I’m extremely proud of them. We’ve played in some games like that throughout the season in different tournaments, and so it wasn’t a surprise. I expect the girls to play that well, I think they expect themselves to pull out wins like that, so I’m not surprised because they put in a lot of work to be in that position to win games when they are close,” Fonua said.

Sopoaga was great, finishing with 14 kills, two digs and one ace to lead Copper Hills. 

“Asiah is a good kid and she works really hard. She’s probably our best all-around player. The performance that you saw today is what we expect from her. She expects probably more than that, even. She’s been our best player all year round and she was just voted in our region, Region 3, most valuable player. When games are close, we expect her to put away balls like she did today,” Fonua said.

Teniyah Leuluai had 15 assists and two aces and Aliyah Sopoaga had 13 assists and four aces. A big reason why Copper Hills won the game was its serving, which Fonua says the team puts an emphasis on.

“We spend a lot of time in our gym; we actually have a radar gun. We just make sure that we’re serving at a decent speed and that it’s clean. We just feel that if we can serve tough that we can keep teams from getting into any rhythm,” Fonua said.

Fonua’s main takeaway from the game was that the team dug deep, showing toughness and grit, for the third set. The team will need that toughness and grit when it takes on Lone Peak.

“That we can do hard things and still win. When things are close and we need a point, or we need to hold a team, when it’s game point, I know that I have confidence that we can do it because we work hard. The girls have shown in the body of work throughout the season that we can do that. I think it’s a testament to our hard work and to the girls’ gritty work ethic,” Fonua said. 

Lone Peak beats Syracuse and other action

No. 4 Lone Peak advanced to the semifinals by defeating No. 5 Syracuse 3-0 (25-10, 25-15, 25-13). The Knights will face No. 1 Copper Hills. In the other quarterfinal matches, No. 2 Fremont defeated No. 10 Davis 3-0 (26-24, 25-19, 25-19) and will face No. 3 Pleasant Grove, who beat No. 6 Bingham 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 26-24).