Mountain Vista dominant in run to school’s first boys volleyball title

AURORA – Mountain Vista could almost feel the boys volleyball state championship trophy sitting on their finger tips. Grasping it fully turned out to be a tougher than they thought it would be.

The Golden Eagles had to fend off a gritty Fountain-Fort Carson team 25-21, 25-23, 28-26, 30-28 to claim the program’s first state championship. Still a young sport, the Golden Eagles (27-2 overall) captured the fourth boys volleyball title since CHSAA sanctioned the sport back in 2021.

“It means a lot, I’m really proud of the team,” senior hitter Trevor Robinson said. “At the beginning of the season, we started a little rough and we really came together. We started playing as a team and that made all the difference.”

The two losses for the Golden Eagles came against teams they would eventually see in the state tournament. They lost to the Littleton Public School district team 2-0 in a tournament earlier in the year then fell in a five-set battle to Douglas County on April 23.

The got their revenge against the Huskies in the opening match of the tournament with a dominant sweep. They then got LPS and got a 25-23, 22-25, 22-25, 25-19, 15-9 win to advance to the semifinals.

That’s where they faced FFC for the first time and although they swept the Trojans, it was still a tough battle. And the Golden Eagles knew it would be tough again when FFC rallied in dramatic fashion to beat LPS to punch its ticket to the state title game.

“We knew it was going to be a hard fight because we had played them once before,” setter Kevin Motallebi said. “We knew it was going to be a hard match so we just came out fighting.”

The first set was a back and forth battle before Mountain Vista padded its lead late. The Golden Eagles jumped out to a big lead in Set 2, but the Trojans found some momentum and rallied to tighten things up before Vista slammed the door.

Facing match point in the third, the Trojans rallied to their only set of the match to push it to a fourth. And that’s where things got crazy.

Up 24-19 in Set 4, Vista couldn’t put the game away and the two teams eventually traded blows before Robinson ended the match with an ace.

“We were confident that we could put it away,” Robinson said. “We just executed and did what we’ve done all season.

They are the third team to win a state title as Douglas County claimed the inaugural crown before Discovery Canyon rattled off two titles in a row.