(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
COLORADO SPRINGS — It’s almost becoming a tradition.
For the last three years, the winner of the Pikes Peak Athletic Conference has gone on to claim the Class 4A volleyball state championship. Last year, it was Cheyenne Mountain. The two years prior to that, it was Lewis-Palmer.
So the top-ranked Rangers (19-0 overall, 7-0 PPAC) have to like that a sweep of the second-ranked Indians (25-16, 25-18 and 25-20) Thursday night put the PPAC title back in their hands.
“We knew we had to tighten up on our skills and get back to the basics,” senior Elizabeth Reich said. “(Cheyenne Mountain) is a great team, obviously, so we had to come in with a lot of fire and energy and be loud.”
And they accomplished that goal. In each set, the Indians (13-5, 6-1) were able to battle toe-to-toe with their league rival, giving the crowd a feeling that a five-set thriller was in the cards.
But somehow, the Rangers would grab momentum and refused to give it back. They were able to go on runs of 10-0, 13-3 and 5-0 to finish out each set.
“That’s something we focus on,” Reich said. “We try to capitalize and not let them get three points and come together and move on.”
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
And move on they will. Lewis-Palmer currently sits at No. 1 in the 4A volleyball RPI, which makes them a shoe-in to host a regional. Should they advance through their region, the Rangers will find themselves back in the state tournament, where they lost to the Indians in last year’s final.
But that’s not where their focus is right now. They know that getting better each game is the key reclaiming championship gold, so they look no further than whoever is next on their schedule.
“Every time that comes out wants to be in the state championship,” Lewis-Palmer coach Susan Odenbaugh said. “When we lost in 2012 we knew we had to player harder to redeem ourselves. This year, we haven’t even talked about the loss, we’ve only talked about our potential and what we need to do.”
There is good news for Cheyenne Mountain, however.
The last time that the winner of the PPAC title didn’t win the state title was back in 2012. The Rangers came away with the league crown with a 3-1 win over Cheyenne Mountain.
But the Indians came away with the ultimate prize, beating Lewis-Palmer 3-1 in the 4A title game. They know they can get back to that point, it’s just going to take work to correct the things that went wrong Friday.
“The game definitely prepares us for the future,” senior Casey Ahrendsen said. “It shows us what they have now compared to last year, but it shows us what we have to improve on in order to beat them.”
It was a tall order coming into the night as Cheyenne Mountain coach David Barkley was out of town due to a death in his family.
Interim coach Gail Sanchez knows that the talent is right there to play with the Rangers. But several unforced errors also gave the Indians an unnecessary mental block to overcome.
“I honestly believed coming into this match that we had a chance of winning it,” she said. “But a lot of those errors just went into their head and they couldn’t get out of it.”
Sanchez also believes that the two teams will see each other again. If it happens in the state title game, it will be the fourth time since 2009 that they’ll play for the title.
It’s almost becoming a tradition.