Merino girls volleyball gunning for first 1A three-peat since 1990s

Since 2018, Merino High School’s volleyball program has a 79-16 regular season record, 11 playoff victories and two state titles. 

The first state title came in 2020 when Merino finished the pandemic-shortened season 17-2 and defeated No. 1 seed Fleming, 3-2, in the 1A state championship. 

The Rams earned their second straight championship in 2021 by pairing dominant district play with an undefeated postseason run. They defeated No. 1 seed Briggsdale in the quarterfinals and Fleming in the state title game, again. 

That leaves Merino with a chance to make history — no 1A program has won three straight titles since Flagler High School’s dynamic run in the 1990s. 

Will Merino be the next to accomplish the dominant feat? 

“We don’t really talk about that,” said Christin Sutter, Merino’s head volleyball coach. “Every year, we talk about how we’re a new group and we’re a new team and not the one from last year or the year before. This group has its own identity and its own path it’s going to take.”

If that path is any indication, Merino is in the driver’s seat. The Rams rank No. 1 in 1A, according to the latest weekly coaches poll, and sport a 10-0 record at the midway point of the season. 

Merino has won 30 sets through ten matches, losing just one in a matchup against Fleming earlier this season. 

“We’re fortunate to have a great group of girls who love to play volleyball,” Sutter said. “It’s fun, they enjoy it and they work really hard at it. They enjoy playing together.

“It’s not easy to win, but it’s fun to go to practice every day.” 

The Merino roster is littered with depth. Kya Piel, Jadelynn Powell and Jaylyn Lynch are all starting freshmen with strong defensive profiles. Sophomore Veronica Baray, a key contributor on last year’s championship team, provides defensive versatility. 

Nevaeh Bucker and Anna Ryles are developing sophomores with talent and teammate Brooklyn Sutter, also a sophomore, is in her second season setting the team’s offense. 

Captains Keila Nunez, a senior, and Makenna Sutter, a junior, are two veterans providing experience and direction on the court for a young group. Bailey Erickson is a senior who receives limited playing time but “cheers the team enthusiastically as one of its biggest supporters,” Makenna said. 

“We all just love volleyball and we have good leadership on the court,” Makenna Sutter said. “And the coaches of course — they have a huge impact. They build our love for the game, make us better and put us in the right positions.” 

Christin, in her 10th season as head coach, has helped forge Merino’s status as a top 1A program alongside longtime assistant coaches Kati Piel and Kimberly Kirschbaum. Volunteer coaches Jeri Kloberdanz and Kayelani Kirschbaum are now a part of that conversation, too. 

The players, for their part, have been receptive to the coaches’ methods, and they have accumulated spikes, passes, serves, digs and blocks together since their youth, Makenna said. 

“This group is great at ball control and they work hard on defense,” Christin Sutter said. “We’ve worked hard on trying to make sure we’re staying on our feet and running through the ball. They’re eager to play strong defense and get after it.” 

Practices are typically competitive but include moments of celebration or encouragement. The players value defense, probably more so than anything else. Serve-receive drills are a vital part of practice and communication is another consistent talking point. 

If you add it all up, it might be a bit easier to see why Merino has a 51-7 combined regular and postseason record since 2020, and why the Rams could have a date with history later this fall. 

“It’s almost surreal,” said Makenna Sutter of the team’s stretch dating back to 2020, her freshman season. “We don’t like to be too cocky or talk about our winning the past two years, but we like to go into every game that we play with the mindset that we’re state champions and it’s another chance to play volleyball and get better.”