The Class 5A volleyball season has been a thrill ride. There were ups and downs, twists and turns, and upsets lurking around every corner.
But in the end, Valor Christian won it all — again. Make it a four-peat for the soaring Eagles. They beat the underdog Chaparral Wolverines in five epic sets, closing it out with a 24-22 victory.
The championship was immediately dedicated to longtime coach Jayne McHugh, who is currently on a leave of absence due to an illness that sidelined her for much of the season.
“We’re taking this to her,” said teary-eyed senior middle blocker Tegan Beuhler as she hoisted the championship trophy.
The Valor players wore No. 7 on their shoes, a tribute to McHugh, who wore No. 7 for the U.S. Olympic team.
“When we needed something extra, the girls looked down at No. 7,” coach Trisha Kroll said.
It was a remarkable state tournament. Tops seeds Fossil Ridge, Valor Christian and Rock Canyon all had the talent to hoist the championship trophy. But it was seventh-seeded Chaparral that crashed the party at the Denver Coliseum.
The Wolverines (24-8) pulled off the shocker of the season on Saturday afternoon, beating powerful Rock Canyon in the semifinals, earning themselves a spot in the championship game against dynastic Valor (26-3) on Saturday night.
Against Rock Canyon, the Wolverines dropped the first set, 26-24, but then reeled off three sets in a row (25-14, 25-18, 26-24). The Wolves used ball control and precision serving to keep Rock Canyon out of its power game.
“I don’t think anybody saw this coming,” Chaparral senior outside hitter and part-time setter Lauren Waggoner said. “Rampart swept us two weeks ago, but then we swept them in this tournament. When we got rolling, we knew we would be unstoppable.”
The Eagles also had to scramble to reach the championship before claiming their fourth consecutive state title. Chaparral was hunting for its fourth overall, but its first since 2019.
“We feel so honored to be in the finals,” Chaparral coach Amanda West said. “But again, I think it comes down to our strength across the board. It doesn’t come down to one big kid, but doing well at each phase of the game.”
Valor swept Chapparral in the second round of the tournament on Thursday (25-18, 25-20, 25-16), sending the Wolverines into the elimination bracket. In a weird way, that helped the Wolverines in their semifinal upset of Rock Canyon.
“The beginning of this tournament wasn’t great for us, but our confidence has just been growing,” West said. “We had to play the last three days knowing that if we lost, we’d have to go home. I don’t think that Rock Canyon was used to that pressure, but we were. We handled it well.”
Valor came into the tournament with a target on its back and the burden of history on its shoulders. Last year, the Eagles became the first team to win three titles in a row in Colorado’s largest classification since Evergreen won eight straight titles from 1978 to 1985.
“The girls know about the four-peat, but we don’t talk about it very much,” said Kroll, who stepped up to lead the Eagles early in the season when McHugh began her medical leave of absence.
“What we do talk about is being fierce and playing free,” Kroll added. “We did that tonight.”
But the Eagles’ dreams of four in a row looked to be in trouble when Rock Canyon beat them in a third-round match on Friday night. The Jaguars had never beaten the Eagles, and lost to them in the 2022 state finals. However, the Jaguars were supremely confident that they could defeat Valor.
“We know we had to go after Valor; everybody wants to beat Valor,” senior receive specialist and setter Logan Cary said after the Jaguars topped Valor in five sets (25-23, 26-28, 24-26, 25-19, 15-7). “We knew we had to come together as a team and we did.”
But the thrill of finally beating Valor was short-lived, and it was Chaparral, not Rock Canyon, that earned the championship test vs. Valor.
Valor’s path to another championship was steep. Top-seeded Fossil Ridge beat the Eagles in four sets on Oct. 14, ending Valor’s run of 72 consecutive in-state victories that dated all the way back to the 2021 state tournament.
But Valor, displaying why it’s Colorado’s premier prep volleyball program, refused to fold during the tournament. Forced into the elimination bracket, the Eagles first beat Pine Creek in a Saturday morning match (25-20, 21-25, 25-18, 25-20) to earn a rematch with Fossil Ridge in the semifinals. Controlling the match from the outset, Valor beat the SaberCats in three games (25-20, 25-22, 25-23).
“We are playing for each other and not ourselves, and that is so ingrained in this program,” said senior outside hitter Bergan Waitman, who’s headed to Palm Beach-Atlantic (Fla.) on a scholarship.
Kroll, who had been coaching the Eagles for just nine days when they lost to Fossil Ridge in October, said it took a while for the team to find its rhythm when she took over for McHugh.
“Coming in, in my first game, I didn’t really know all of the girls,” Kroll said. “But I’ve been coaching them for seven weeks, and we’ve built trust.
“Fossil Ridge is a very talented team — they have four Division I players and we have one — but we studied their tendencies and had a plan. But mostly, I knew that if we focused on what we do, we could win.”
The SaberCats, who opened the season with a five-set win over Rock Canyon, had lost only eight sets all season entering the state tournament. But Valor negated the ‘Cats’ firepower in Saturday’s semifinals.
“That was our greatest display of us playing with freedom over fear,” Kroll said. “We played with our true identity.”
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