3A Volleyball: Resurrection Christian Defies Odds, Brings Home State Championship

DENVER — Sports are all about family and the embrace between senior Mackenzie Flikkema and her mom Sherene Flikkema — who is an assistant coach for Resurrection Christian School — proved that.

In a back-and-forth match between No. 7 Resurrection Christian Cougars and No. 11 University High School Bulldogs, the Cougars are the ones who get to hang the 3A CHSAA championship banner after a 3-1 (25-22, 25-18, 27-25, 25-14) victory.

Flikkema played a key role in the Cougars rise back to the top. She was a large part of the 15-3 run that would end the Bulldogs hope and because of that, she gets to ride off into the sunset.

“It’s amazing,” Flikkema said. “I feel like you put in so much work over these four years and I’m just so grateful for this team. It’s surreal, I’m so proud of us.”

When you have to graduate six seniors from your team, at least you get to do so leaving their names enshrined in the rafters forever.

Those six include: Kaitlynn Dean, Kailey Kemp, Bailey Mayes, Lila Roastad, Flikkema and Sophia Knevelbaard.

Knevelbaard sealed the game for the Cougars with a service ace for match point. Her kneeling on the floor, fists clenched and yelling as she’s surrounded by her teammates will be an image etched into the minds of the RCS fans for a long time.

“I’m so proud of my team,” Knevelbaard said. “We really work together, we came from kind of an iffy season and (we) really showed up during state. During the last point, I was just ultimately confident in every one of my teammates. University is a great competitor, but I knew we had it.”

University proved to be a great competitor, especially in the regular season when they beat the Cougars in five sets.

Coming into Saturday night, the rematch for all of the glory was on the forefront of 3A volleyball fans from Northern Colorado.

“The girls played great,” coach Ben Reeser said. “We’ve worked on a lot of things and they put them all into action. … Our passing was phenomenal, our blocking was phenomenal and we figured out ways to score points and the girls did a great job.”

Reeser and his squad got banner No. 3 for RCS and the first one since 2014.

While it’s the third banner that’s heading back to Loveland, Colorado, it’s the Cougars’ first time winning in the 3A competition.

“It’s been a journey,” Reeser said. “We moved up from 2A to 3A, this is our first 3A championship. It’s a whole different level of play and our program adjusted. We figured out how to get there and we figured out what to do.”

All it took for Reeser and his squad to get their first championship in 3A action was playing four games in two days, including the game in which they beat No. 1 Platte Valley.

That determination and belief in themselves — even when it seemed that no one else believed in them — is the reason Resurrection Christian will be immortalized as the 2023 3A Colorado High School Activities Association champions.

“I don’t think anybody picked us,” Reeser said. “Not a lot of people picked us even in the top-10 coming into this year. But, these girls worked hard, they bought in — sometimes more than others, but they bought into the process and everything that we’re doing and came together and played their best at the end.”