5A girls volleyball: Rock Canyon, Valor Christian advance to semifinals at state
By Brad Cochi/CHSAANow.com
DENVER – It’s been a while, but the Rock Canyon girls volleyball team is back in the semifinals.
During a highly-competitive stretch several years ago, the Jaguars were one of the final four teams in back-to-back seasons in 2015 and 2016. But the program has been unable to put together a return to date.
Well, the Jaguars are back.
On Friday at the Denver Coliseum, the Rock Canyon girls won 16-25, 25-14, 25-19, 19-25, 15-10 over defending Class 5A state champion and No. 7 seed Cherry Creek to reach the state semifinals.
“It means a lot because everyone had a tough year with the COVID season and we’ve just been working really hard,” Rock Canyon head coach Angela Nylund-Hanson said. “We have a solid group of girls and a lot of support from our fans and our bench. It just means a lot for everybody.”
A surprise qualifier out of regionals last season, the Jaguars entered this year’s state tournament as the No. 3 overall seed. Their semifinal match was a rematch of a regular-season contest between the two teams that Rock Canyon swept back on Aug. 30.
The rematch was a decidedly different affair in which the Jaguars needed a fifth set to clinch.
“We played Creek earlier in the season and we beat them in three, but they’ve obviously got their new act together and teams are different come state,” Nylund Hanson said. “It was really back-and-forth there early on and they’re a strong blocking team, so we struggled with that early on. But we figured it out and came together a lot as a team to finish the game.”
Also in the quarterfinals, No. 1 Valor Christian swept No. 5 Grandview – 25-15, 25-13, 25-17 – to lock up a spot in Saturday’s semifinals.
After losing to Rock Canyon, Cherry Creek will face No. 4 Rampart in the elimination bracket quarterfinals for a shot at the semifinals. No. 6 Chaparral will face No. 5 Grandview in the other elimination quarterfinal to fight for the last semifinals spot.
