Olympus made quick work of Brighton Thursday, walking away victorious in a straight set victory, 25-21, 25-16, and 25-20.
“I think our offense played really well,” said Olympus head coach John Wright. “We had some good passing in defense, a lot of good digs.
“Our team just played well as a program throughout the match. I was able to put in other guys and I really thought everyone play well.”
Brighton started off the match on a really strong note, racing out to a 5-0 lead in the first set, though Olympus quickly answered by going on a 6-0 run of its own.
While much of the first set was back and forth and remained close, Olympus finished on a 6-1 run to close it out strong with a kill by Austin Hooton to seal the opening set win.
“Our game plan was just to play our own game, stay relaxed and just do what we do, play on what we’ve worked on in practice and work hard,” Wright said.
“These guys have a lot of heart. Gabe Lincoln, our outside hitter, is our captain. You know, I could really see it in his face. He had something to prove, and he wanted to prove it and he did it tonight.”
Olympus then continued to pile on the pressure against Brighton in the second set, opening it on a 7-2 run to quickly get some breathing room, and it had an answer every time Brighton tried to get back into the game.
Wright knows that if his team wants to finish out the season strong heading into state, it will need to continue to work on the fundamentals, tightening the screws on every area on the court.
“I think we just need to keep working hard, change up what we do. We need to work on a little more of our back row hits and just some more different shots, different sets. We plan on doing that before we get to state.”
After starting the third set down 4-2, Olympus went on a commanding 9-0 run to continue the momentum on its way to a comfortable victory.
With the regular season winding down in the next couple of weeks, Wright knows now is not the time for his team to get comfortable, and it will only get they very best from each opponent it faces from here on out.
“I think we need to keep positive energy, positive attitude and not being too confident,” he said. “We need to just expect to play hard.
“Every other team is competitive, and we have to play against them like they’re the most competitive team, and that’s just going to make us play better.”