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OREM — At the beginning of the year, Bingham right-side hitter JJ Faiivae had a fear of getting blocked.
You wouldn't know it by the 6A state championship match.
Faiivae had 16 kills as the Miners overturned a third set setback to win the school's first sanctioned boys' volleyball state title, 25-20, 25-19, 23-25, 25-18, Saturday at the UCCU Center at Utah Valley University.
Brody Siddoway added six kills and three block touches for Bingham (25-4), which won its 18th straight match.
"Finally, we just said, you're a sophomore and swing like that; you've got to swing away," Bingham first-year coach Ben Chamberlain said of his rising star sophomore.
"When he had them lined up on the right side down the line, that was our state MVP," he added. "No one can shut him down — and he just kept going. He's put in so much work."
Perhaps more impressive? He's still got two more years left of high school. And his swing is all natural, he joked.
"My dad always tells me, just swing away," Faiivae said. "Do your best. ... It's just all about form."
Clark Fowler had 13 kills to lead third-seeded Mountain Ridge, and Nesta Vaitai added 12 kills and three block touches for the Sentinels (19-6).
Both teams hit mostly even during the opening set. But Bingham got a pair of blocks from Jackson Whitehead and Ethan Peterson to take a 22-17 advantage.
Siddoway had four kills and an ace in the first set before putting away the 1-0 advantage with a 25-20 win, and the Miners used the momentum to jump out to a 14-5 advantage in the second set.
Bingham controlled the right side through the first two sets, getting eight sets from Faiivae and eight block touches in the first two sets en route to the 2-0 lead following a 25-19 second-set victory.
The Miners trailed by as much as 17-11 in the third set, but came all the way back to tie the set at 23-all through Jerico Jones.
But the Sentinels leaned on Fowler, and Kallen Siriprathane held off Bingham's late charge with a block to clinch the third set for Mountain Ridge, 25-23.
Still, the Miners didn't stay down for long. If anything, rally from a big deficit only emboldened them.
"We low-key probably should've lost by more than that," said senior middle blocker Ethan Peterson, who had six block touches. "But every time we've played Mountain Ridge this year, we'd always drop the third set. I don't know why; it's just really weird.
"But we just locked in and wanted to finish them out. It was a grueling game, but we knew we were the better team and we knew that would eventually show."
Derek Peterson had two of his three aces in the fourth set to lift Bingham to a 22-17 advantage, and Ethan Peterson helped close out the 25-18 win with a pair of powerful hits down the stretch.
"Mountain Ridge is an incredible team," said Chamberlain, whose team dropped just one postseason set. "They did an incredible job, and they're big rivals in our regions but brothers off the court.
"But I couldn't be more proud to win again in four; that's what we do."
