Simla girls volleyball championship quest wakes from hibernation

DENVER – It had been 29 years since Simla’s girls volleyball team last captured a state championship.

Kelly Kocerha was a big part of that Cubs team that won a pair of Class 2A titles over three years. On Saturday night, Kocerha and her Simla players recaptured that state glory, sweeping past Sedgwick County 25-17, 25-14, 25-13 to claim the 2A crown at the Denver Coliseum.

“Simla volleyball means the world to me. It did so much for me in my life,” Kocerha said. “As an adult, I wanted to give back to the game and give back to the community and the school that did so much for me.”

Simla (27-2) entered the state tournament as the No. 1 seed, and backed that up from start to finish. The Cubs didn’t drop a set in four matches at the Coliseum. In fact, the team dropped only one set over a two-month span after being swept by 1A power Merino back on Sept. 6.

Simla junior Carlee Cox pointed to that loss as the team’s turning point. Kocerha added that while losing is never fun, sometimes it’s necessary.

“I think we came out of that match learning a lot about ourselves,” she said. “This team, their motto is ‘earn it.’ From the beginning, they wanted to work and they wanted to earn it.

“They wanted the tough stuff. They wanted it to be hard.”

Sedgwick County (24-7) was the defending champion coming into state, and after a loss in the second round, the Cougars had to win three consecutive elimination matches to get back to the title game for the sixth year in a row.
The team started fast with a pair of blocks from Daryn Nein to go up 2-0, and kept the first set close until an 11-4 run put the set away.

The second set was a dominant showing from Cox, who had seven of her team-high 16 kills. It wasn’t just Cox though – sophomore Haylee Easler and freshmen Trenna Kocerha and Brynlee Amendt were also strong on the attack.

Coach Kocerha said the team knew it was important to balance the attack after a semifinal loss to Wiggins a year ago, and Cox was the first one to lean into that.

“All year it was an incredible spread,” Kocerha said. “Any given night we’ve got power along the net.”

The team’s only senior, Katie Gotschall, played a big role on attack and on the block in the third set, as did Cox with six more kills. Easler put the match away with a kill to set off the celebration.

“It feels surreal,” Cox said. “I love my teammates. It’s just a great group of girls.”