No. 1 in nation O'Connor boys volleyball defeats Perry in 6A championship rematch

Sandra Day O'Connor boys volleyball defeated Perry in straight sets in a rematch of last year's 6A Conference final.

O’Connor nearly dropped its first set in state play this season after going down 22-24 in the opening set, but outside hitter and UCLA commit Zach Rama propelled an Eagles comeback as they rode the momentum to prevail 3-0 (26-24, 25-17, 25-20). While he will gladly take the victory, O’Connor head coach Troy Dueling hopes to clean up the mistakes.

“Honestly, we weren’t great,” Dueling said. “We certainly had way too many service errors. I don’t think we stayed within ourselves at times, but I do like how we competed, especially in that first set. We’ve got a lot of things to get better at based on tonight, but I liked that we fought.”

The match at Sandra Day O'Connor provided an early-season test for both the Eagles and Pumas on Wednesday. O'Connor entered the match at No. 1 in MaxPreps' national rankings — a spot previously held by Perry during last year's undefeated season — and both sides could cross paths again in the playoffs.

“I think it’s pretty much implied that this is an important one,” Dueling said. “Not so much that they’re the defending champs or it’s a rematch, it’s just that I think there’s five or six good teams in Arizona, and they’re one of them. That’s how we’re going to elevate our game when we’re playing any five of those.”

Rama entered the match with the highest hitting percentage (0.422) and fifth-most kills (128) in Arizona. O'Connor setter and GCU commit Jaxon Herr entered the match with the third-most assists in the state at 282.

After runner-up finishes in 2018 and 2021, including last year’s five-set loss to Perry, O’Connor hopes to rally behind its 11 seniors to capture its first state championship.

“Jaxon and Zach deserve a ton of credit, but it’s really the culture of all those seniors and what’s going on inside of our program,” Dueling said. “We’ve got another year of experience under our belt, we’re physically stronger than we were last year, and we’re more mature about how we go about our business.”

With the result, O’Connor improves to 6-0 in state play and are scheduled to host Hamilton on Thursday. Perry falls to 4-1 and will hit the road for another tough matchup on Thursday, this time against a Highland side ranked No. 7 in the nation.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: O'Connor boys volleyball defeats Perry in 6A championship rematch