Winning a girls volleyball tournament at the World Arena is beyond tough

Let’s forget about the aesthetics for a minute. Winning a girls volleyball tournament at The Broadmoor World Arena – check that – winning the girls volleyball tournament at The Broadmoor World Arena is the toughest challenge that any of the 32 teams receiving an invite will face all year.

And it’s likely the best overall volleyball competition that fans in attendance will watch all year.

The Cheyenne Mountain Invitational is not for the faint of heart. It’s for teams that have serious ambitions of playing their final volleyball matches in the late hours of the final day of the season.

There is perhaps no better training ground than the World Arena.

“It’s an all-classification state tournament,” Montrose coach Shane Forrest said. “Everybody had a chance to play the best teams in the state. This is harder to win than at the state tournament.”

The Red Hawks figured that out fairly quickly. Their first two matches were against Chaparral (the No. 1 seed in Class 5A regionals) and Eaton (the No. 1 seed in 3A regionals). They dropped both and even after losing outside hitter Maggie Legg, the Red Hawks were able to knock off Lutheran in four sets in their final match of the weekend.

“We’re ready for 4A volleyball regionals,” Forrest said.

It’s a sentiment that was shared through each team that will continue play this weekend. Thompson Valley received the top seed in 4A despite suffering its first loss of the season. It almost came in their second match of the tournament, but the Eagles battled to a 23-25, 26-28, 25-11, 25-9, 16-14 reverse sweep of Mountain Vista.

The Eagles weren’t so lucky against Chaparral as the Wolverines won 3-1 to advance to the final of the Whataburger bracket.

“It’s hard for us since we don’t have the most competitive league in Colorado,” Eagles senior hitter Avery Gibbs said. “It’s hard knowing that we’re coming here playing teams like Mountain Vista or maybe Valor. Teams with so much skill.”

But facing those teams will only make a Thompson Valley that much better. The Eagles won back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022 before losing to Palmer Ridge in last year’s final.

After falling to Chaparral at the World Arena, the Eagles bounced back and beat Legend 3-1. The Titans are the No. 4 seed in 5A regionals.

With split brackets, two tournament championships were there for the taking and it was Cherry Creek taking the Sports Corps title with Valor Christian completed its run to the Whataburger championship.

For the Bruins, it was a reassuring two days of play as they seem to be hitting stride at just the right time.

“We had a rocky start to the season,” Cherry Creek’s Ava Ross said. “Each week we’ve gotten better and better and this tournament shows how much better we’ve gotten throughout the season.”

Creek beat Cheyenne Mountain in its final. The Red-Tailed Hawks are seeded sixth in 4A regionals and when they’re playing their best, look like a team that could easily win a state title.

Valor needed just four sets to beat Chaparral to claim another tournament win at the World Arena, its third consecutive crown. Not only did the Eagles take care of the team that ended up getting the No. 1 seed in regionals, but they gained some needed reassurances after suffering loss in nearly three years earlier this season.

“When we had that loss, it lit a fire under us and really wanted to make us work harder and get better,” Valor setter Chloe Elarton said. “Coming to this tournament, we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were still good. That we still love each other, play together, all that good stuff.”

In the three years since the Cheyenne Mountain Invite moved to from the gym at Cheyenne Mountain High School to the World Arena, it’s been a who’s who of volleyball talent.

There are Division I players from each classification all over the floor, ranging from Platte Valley’s Karsyn Fetzer (Gonzaga) to Bridget Malone (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), the 6-foot-1 daughter of Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone.

With two brackets, it also provides local teams such as Coronado or Doherty a chance to experience a postseason atmosphere in a year where they don’t advance to regionals.

From the big=picture standpoint, this event has been great for kids and great for the growth of high school volleyball.

From the small-picture standpoint, it’s harder to win a tournament on the floor of the World Arena than it is the Denver Coliseum.