1A Volleyball: Merino Wins Fourth-Straight State Title

DENVER – The Merino girls volleyball program has reached the point where seemingly each time one of its teams travels to the state tournament, it makes some sort of history.

At the Denver Coliseum on Saturday night, this year’s top-seeded Rams won 25-17, 25-21, 25-16 over No. 4 Simla in the Class 1A state championship match. It was the Rams’ fourth-straight championship, making Merino the first program to win four-consecutive titles in the 1A classification.

“It feels fantastic,” said Rams head coach Christina Sutter, who also won a championship during her career as a high school player at Merino. “I played here for an amazing coach and it’s such an honor to continue the tradition.”

From 1987-91, the Merino girls volleyball team won five-straight titles while bouncing back-and-forth between 1A and 2A. That streak is the second-longest in Colorado history behind Colorado Springs Christian School’s run of six straight from 2004-09.

In total, Merino has won 14 state championships, which is the second most of any program in Colorado preps history. Platte Valley has the most all-time championships with 15.

It was also the second straight season in which the Rams swept their opponent in the championship match, and the fourth year in a row that senior Makenna Sutter had been part of a Merino title.

“They’re all so fun but it just feels so special because I’ve played with these girls for two years now and it’s just so thrilling,” Sutter said. “It hasn’t hit me yet and I’ll be sad that I have to leave them, but I’m excited for what they have in the future ahead of them. Sometimes we struggled getting motivation going into the second set especially, but we just never gave up and we were tired but we found a way to push through.”

Merino had defeated Fleming in each of the previous three championship matches before facing Simla this season.

Merino’s only loss this season is to Wiggins, the No. 1 seed in the 2A bracket.

Simla has won two titles, last winning in 1996.

Fleming, the last team not named Merino to win a title, has the second-most 1A championships with seven titles in its program’s history. The Wildcats last won in 2019 and had played in 14 of the last 17 state title matches but did not qualify for the 2023 state tournament.