BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

MORGAN — Volleyball teams that had Morgan High on their schedule this year noted the game not just because they were facing the Trojans, one of the top programs in the state, but also because of No. 8 in the middle, Alyvia Jaffa.

Jaffa, a 6-foot-3 senior middle blocker and Morgan’s best player, would face two blockers, sometimes three, each time she rose to hit the ball.

Still, she led her team and ranked high on state leaderboards with 358 kills, a .327 hitting percentage and 109 total blocks to go with 35 aces.

Jaffa was a dominant force that helped propel Morgan’s 25-7 season, which included a Region 13 championship and a 3A state runner-up finish. Jaffa is the 2023 Standard-Examiner All-Area Volleyball Player of the Year.

“Liv was a huge part of our team this year. She was a great leader, very positive but very competitive in the same and she made people better around her, and that’s hard,” Morgan head coach Liz Wiscombe said.

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner

Blocking in particular was Jaffa’s calling card. Her 109 blocks ranked first in 3A and third in the state. Jaffa had a season-high 11 blocks in the state championship match and eight total matches with five-plus blocks.

The 109 recorded blocks don’t take into account the number of times she got a finger or a hand on a shot that slowed the ball down enough for a teammate to reach it, or the times she altered an opponents’ shot as they jumped up to hit the ball while simultaneously seeing the 6-foot-3 Jaffa in their peripherals.

It helps in the blocking phase of things to be tall and athletic, since the regulation height of a volleyball net is 7 feet, 4 1/8 inches. But Jaffa also changed how she approached blocking in general this year.

“Before, I kind of looked at it as like a defensive move and stuff, but this year I kind of switched my mindset to it’s an attack, like, go get the ball,” she said.

Jaffa’s hitting numbers weren’t necessarily eye-popping as much as they were consistent. Jaffa’s season high for kills was 18, which she did twice.

BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

In 32 matches, she hit double-digit kills 21 times. Her hitting percentage (a player’s kills, subtracted by hitting errors, divided by total hitting attempts) ranked second in 3A and 15th in the state.

“I would definitely say that this year I was the most confident, out of all the years, and just the team, we all supported each other really well,” Jaffa said.

Another mentality change this year, spurred partly by Morgan’s late-season shift toward more competitive practices, happened with Jaffa’s hitting. She wanted to close her senior year with no regrets.

“I’d just kind of roll it over or something if I wasn’t feeling super confident, but I think that’s the thing that changed at state was I really just focused on staying aggressive,” Jaffa said.

Morgan won yet another region championship this year, only getting remotely tested once in 10 region games. The Trojans ripped through their first three matches in the state tournament before a five-set loss to Emery in the title game.

Jaffa’s prep career ended in that state tournament at Utah Valley University, the same place she’ll play college volleyball.

She finished her high school career with 501 total blocks, which ranks second in UHSAA history, and 1,319 kills, which ranks 10th. On top of those was last year’s state title, plus the three runner-up finishes in 2020, 2021 and 2023.

“Every time you came in the gym, she had a big smile,” Wiscombe said. “She was just happy to be there and she loves the game and from the coaching side, it was just so much fun to have her in the gym the last four years.

“A lot of kids can’t handle constructive criticism a lot but with Liv, she was always determined to get better and she just played hard.”

When Jaffa started playing sports, she said she initially wanted to play college basketball, then started playing volleyball around the fifth grade and never stopped.

“I like how close you get as a team, you can’t do it alone and stuff. And I just like how I can be super aggressive, whether it’s blocking or hitting or serving,” Jaffa said.

Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.

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