The only thing better than a state title is two state titles in a row, and that’s exactly what the high school volleyball team earned over the weekend after besting the team from Snowflake in the championship round of the state tournament.

The local ladies had to first make their way through Casteel, Odyssey Institute and Northwest Christian before making their way into the finals, which they did despite some additional obstacles during the season’s final week.

“We had a challenging week,” said head coach Peter McGloin. “On Monday, Paula [Iwaoka], our libero, captain and emotional leader, went down with a sprained knee.”

McGloin said he was thankful that the injury was not too serious, but it was definitely enough to sideline a player who had a hand in about 90 percent of the season’s plays.

“The positive is that we have a really deep team this year…Alexa Armenta was the one who stepped up for Paula. She’s never played libero before, but I knew that she had the skills to do it,” McGloin added. “But despite that, I think some doubt definitely started to creep into our minds. We’ve had a lot of injuries this season and losing Paula was rough. But we got back on the same page before the tournament, we all believed in ourselves and we were ready to move forward.”

Casteel

The Falcons entered the state tournament with a match against Casteel, taking control early and going on to win in three straight games by a final score of 25-16, 25-15, 25-16.

McGloin said that Casteel was aware of the substitution and gunned for Armenta throughout the match, but the new libero stood her ground, kept a cool head and kept the ball moving.

“She did an exceptional job all weekend, and everybody else stuck together and gave her plenty of support,” McGloin said. “That’s the beauty of this team. Despite the odds, we persevere.”

McGloin added that the Falcons defeated Casteel twice throughout the regular season, but this was the hardest the team had ever played.

“I really love the way that program has grown,” he said. “But we played Falcon volleyball and were off to the second round.”

Odyssey

Round two of the tournament saw the Falcons square off against Odyssey Institute, another match the local ladies managed to win in three straight games. After besting the Minotaurs 25-11 in set one, the Falcons went on to win the next two sets by identical scores of 25-18.

It was a solid win, but McGloin said that the Falcons weren’t as crisp as they needed to be.

“It was a reminder that the little things make a difference,” McGloin said. “And we needed that reminder going into our next match.”

Northwest

McGloin described the state semi-finals as the championship showdown, with two of the best teams in the state squaring off for five games of intense volleyball.

“I heard from a lot of people that they lost years off their life or got gray hairs from watching this one,” McGloin joked.

The first two sets were mirror images of each other, with Northwest winning the first by a score of 25-18 and the Falcons winning the second by the same score.

Set three was a close one, with the Falcons edging past their opponents with a final score of 25-23. Northwest wasn’t done fighting, though, and bounced back for a fourth set win of 25-16.

Playing a shortened fifth and final set, the Falcons managed to earn a final victory with a score of 15-12 over the Crusaders.

“Northwest is awesome,” McGloin said. “Either of our teams would be competing for championships at any level. We beat them last year for the title, so we knew they had their sights set on us.

“It didn’t look like a normal high school volleyball game. It was fast-paced and everybody was playing to win.”

Only one team could win, though, and that was the Falcons.

Snowflake

With Northwest in the rearview mirror, the Falcons went into the state championship fired up and ready to dominate the Snowflake Lobos. The local ladies earned their repeat championship in three straight sets; 25-16, 25-19, 25-15.

Snowflake was the number one seed and undefeated up to this point, but the Falcons kept control of the match from start to finish.

“We knew we couldn’t take them lightly, so we came ready to play,” McGloin said. “Everybody pushed through the fatigue from two days of tough play, fought for it and earned the win.

“It was a great way to end a great season with an incredibly special team.”