Boys volleyball: Discovery Canyon, Legend advance to championship semifinal

AURORA – A runner-up finish at the first-ever high school boys volleyball state championships in 2021 left the Legend Titans hungry for a title heading into the spring of 2022.

That hunger motivated the sixth-seeded Titans to a thrilling 25-16, 15-25, 25-16, 25-21 upset victory over No. 2 Bear Creek in the quarterfinals of the state championships on Friday at Overland High School. One of just two teams still alive without a loss in the double-elimination tournament, the Titans are now one more win away from another shot at the title that narrowly eluded them a year ago.

“I’m excited about tomorrow,” Legend senior Landon Waltz said. “We’ve been playing good. Yesterday was a blast. We played so well. Today was a little dicey, but we got our aggression back and we pulled out a win against a really good team.”

In the semifinals at 11 a.m. on Saturday, the Titans will face a fourth-seeded Discovery Canyon team that has not lost a match, or even a single set, in 2022. On Friday, the unbeaten Thunder (25-0) swept top-seeded Cherry Creek, 25-17, 25-12, 25-18, to secure its own spot in the semifinals.

As well as the Thunder played during the regular season, senior setter Carter Phillips believes they’ve reached another level while facing the state’s best teams over the past two days.

“I think we’re a very momentum-based team,” Phillips said. “When we see that ball and we’re rolling with it, we keep rolling with it. We don’t let up. Our coach has been harping on us all season to remember, ‘All gas, no breaks.’ You start strong, you finish strong. At the beginning of the season, it was all pretty new but we knew this team was built for state.

“Once it was time for regionals and state, we picked up the intensity in practice and we picked up the mentality. We knew that’s what we had to do and now we’re playing great teams, so we’re playing great.”

At last year’s first state tournament, every match but one ended in a sweep and the outcome of all but one match went according to seed. This year’s tournament has been completely different, with Discovery Canyon being responsible for the two just and four matches lasting five sets already. Heading into the third and final day, the reigning champion – Douglas County – has been eliminated and the to three top seeds – Cherry Creek, Bear Creek and Cherokee Trail – all have one loss.

In the second consolation round on Friday night, Cherry Creek bounced back to sweep No. 3 Eaglecrest, 25-18, 25-20, 25-21, and remain alive and in the hunt for a title on Day 3. Bear Creek also stayed alive with a 25-19, 22-25, 25-23, 25-16 victory over No. 8 Regis Jesuit.

“It was good to see us battle through a match this difficult,” Bear Creek head coach Dave Youngblood said. “Regis was playing hard because they had nothing to lose, so they were going to go for it. But we got it done and we’re happy to play tomorrow. Our path will be hard, but we’ll see what we can do.”

Bear Creek and Cherry Creek will play one another at 11 a.m. on Saturday with a berth in the semifinals on the line.