In first year of play, The Village powers to 3A girls volleyball title

DENVER – The former principal of The Village got a visit from a number of eager volleyball players a few years ago and the final fruits of that meeting were seen Saturday night.

The Colorado Springs school that only has two varsity sports — girls volleyball and boys basketball — got to play for the first time this season and ended its inaugural campaign with a state championship.

The Mountaineers, which are comprised of players from the Village who played at a handful of different programs in past years, outlasted Colorado prep volleyball royalty — Platte Valley — 20-25, 21-25, 32-30, 25-17, 17-15 — in a marathon at raucous Denver Coliseum.

“These were the players who stormed the prinicipal’s office wanting a volleyball team at their school and they are the ones that put in the work and built the culture,” coach Shannon Baker said. “They did an amazing job of coming together and building relationships because they’d never played together before.”

Over the course of their inaugural season, the Mountaineers figured out how to play together at a high level.
One of the key weapons was 6-foot-2 middle Erika Sayer, who starred at Lewis-Palmer last season, but was incredibly satisfied with a championship with her school.

“We all love each other so much and I’m just so proud of everybody,” Sayer said. “A bunch of us players stormed the office and said ‘we don’t want to play for other schools, give us a team.’ It was like three or four years in the making, but finally having a way to play and have pride for our school is amazing.”

Sayer and senior Lilian Edwards were huge weapons and came through in the big moments consistently, especially in the state championship match.

Against a Platte Valley team that played much better than it had when The Village won in three sets when they played earlier in the tournament, the Mountaineers came through time and time again in the clutch moments. Sayre and senior Olivia Plentl had the deciding points in a key 32-30 win in the third set, then the fifth set saw a heavy diet of sets to Edwards, who scored off blocks, down the lines and just about every other way to help her team win.

“I love the pressure moments and I love feeling like I can control the game,” Edwards said.

Another key was defense, as both teams played phenomenally and produced a slew of extended rallies.

The performance in that area was especially impressive given that The Village played without a libero, yet still managed to keep the ball off the floor when needed.

The Mountaineers did everything they could and made the decision to add the program pay off.

“You can’t ask for anything better for this year,” Baker said. “This season, we said we’re here, we’re ready to play and we’re here to stay. They wanted this program and they got it.”