Millar Changes Pace for Highland : Volleyball: Nearly half of his 26 kills come with soft touch in Golden League sweep of Canyon.

Ryan Millar usually takes the word “kill” a little too seriously, smashing the volleyball through whatever sad pair of hands happen to be on the other side of the net.

Against Canyon, however, the Highland High All-American chose a different tack: delicately place the ball over blockers at the net.

A softer, kinder Millar led the Bulldogs to a 15-7, 15-8, 15-7 Golden League victory over Canyon Friday night at Highland.

Nearly half of his 26 kills were lobbed over a swarm of would-be blockers and into an emptied middle row.

“I’m just trying some different stuff,” said Millar, who will play for BYU next year.

It worked.

The Cowboys (7-1, 5-1 in league play), who scouted the 6-foot-7 Millar earlier in the week, expected him to hit the ball through their blockers.

They didn’t expect him to unveil his off-speed lob.

“He threw us off,” Canyon Coach Rick Phillips said.

Millar also threw down plenty of old-fashioned, teeth-rattling spikes for the Bulldogs (5-0, 5-0), the top-rated team in Southern Section Division II.

But the lob spells s-o-r-r-o-w for future Highland opponents.

“You can throw fastballs all day, but they’ll catch on to it,” said Highland Coach Mike Bird. “Now Ryan has a fastball and a change-up.”

Canyon and Highland stalemated each other with 44 combined sideouts in the first game until the Bulldogs ran off four consecutive points to end it.

Millar made sure there were fewer sideouts in the second game, notching seven kills (three off lobs) and two blocks.

Mike Phillips added three kills and three blocks and finished with eight kills and five blocks for the Bulldogs.

Scott Chisholm and Kevin Fleck each had seven kills for the Cowboys, who didn’t pass, spike--or lob--as crisply as Highland.