COLORADO SPRINGS -- From Day 1 of the 2021 season, the Cherry Creek and Grandview girls volleyball teams both thought they could be Class 5A state champions.
On the last day of the season, the Bruins were proven correct.
The two Centennial League superpowers were drawn through the bracket to Saturday night’s state championship match at the World Arena, where top-seeded Cherry Creek prevailed 27-25, 26-28, 25-17, 25-14 over third-seeded Grandview to claim the program’s first state championship since 2008 and sixth all-time.
“Our chemistry was great, we clicked really well as a team on the court and we all really wanted it,” Cherry Creek senior Carter Booth said. “Not one person on this team didn’t work their (tails) off to get to this point.”
The fact that the two Centennial League teams emerged from the 12-team field to battle of the championship shouldn’t have been surprising.
The Bruins (26-2) and Wolves (24-5) each navigated difficult tests in a 5A tournament in which a large number of matches went five sets and earned the chance to face each other for a third time on the season, with each owning a win against the other.
“Steve and I were talking and I said ‘hey, we expect to see you in the final’ and he said the same thing,” Grandview coach Rob Graham said. “We made it happen and we made it entertaining.”
The first set might have swung the balance of the state championship match and it started out well for the Wolves, who built a lead as large as six points as the Bruins missed a variety of serves and looked out of rhythm.
It was a great start for a Grandview team that had appeared in the state championship match six months ago in the same area (where it lost to Rampart) and had won the previous matchup with Cherry Creek.
But the Bruins settled in, survived two set points and eventually earned a 27-25 victory thanks to a kill by senior Rylan Pollard and a clinching ace by junior Ana Van Wyk.
It was Grandview’s turn to come through in the clutch in the second set, which the Wolves took 28-26 to even the match, but Cherry Creek would put both of the final two sets away by pulling away in the key stages.
The 6-foot-7 Booth set the tone for both of the set wins from the very beginning and she put up a block that vexed Wolves’ hitters on multiple occasions.
Cherry Creek played great defense in the back row, got plenty of putaways from Booth — who found a way around Grandview’s triple block on several occasions with tips that landed inside the baseline — senior Kaegan Wherry and a variety of others and played relentlessly to the final point, which ended with a dogpile on the floor.
Huntingdale added another state championship to his resume with a Centennial League program after he guided Smoky Hill to a pair of titles in the early 2000s.
“I know Grandview and Creek wanted another chance to get after it,” Huntingdale said. “It was high-level volleyball and we just made a few more plays than they did. They are a hell of a team.”
Grandview was also in search of its sixth all-time state championship, but will have to go after its first crown since 2014 next season.
Booth — who signed with the University of Minnesota the day before the state tournament began — was elated to walk off the court with the state championship trophy in her final prep match.
“This is tangible thing that we can say ‘we accomplished this,’” Booth said. “It’s sweet to go out on this note with a team that I love doing the sport that I love.”
