Merino volleyball claims third straight title
Rams come out on top over Wildcats in championship game Saturday
Little stood in the way of Merino volleyball’s third straight Class 1A state championship run throughout the regular season, but some local rivals sure made their postseason campaign a little more exciting.
On Saturday night in front of the crowd of the Denver Coliseum, the top-seeded Rams shut down No. 4 Fleming in the title match in three straight sets to cement themselves as the best team in the classification once again.
Just two matches earlier, the Wildcats defeated them to force them into the consolation bracket. Fleming put the Rams in an unfamiliar position, fighting with their backs against the wall.
The Wildcats began that quarterfinal match with a strong, yet tight, 2520 showing in the first set, but Merino started to creep in a bit more in the second. Still, Fleming claimed that frame with a 25-21 score, but it should have known that the Rams wouldn’t go down that easily.
Merino stormed back in the third frame to steal that one with a 25-15 score, then did the same in the fourth set with a 25-17 final. But, for the first time all season, it was the Wildcats who would come out on top. Fleming won the fifth and final set with 15 points to Merino’s 10.
That setback, just their fourth of the season and their first in three tries against Fleming, forced the Rams to battle their way back to the state title match from the consolation side. That didn’t sit right with them.
Merino flattened No. 11 Briggsdale in three straight sets with scores of 25-23, 25-19 and 25-21, then dropped No. 3 Mcclave even more handily in the semifinals. They only allowed the Cardinals to score 19, 13 and 18 points.
Those two victories vaulted the Rams back to the title match against Fleming and, this time, they didn’t mess around. Merino added the exclamation point to their comeback effort with a 25-17, 25-21 and 25-14 final. They ended their season 26-4 as they continued to dominate the classification that they’ve owned for the past three years.