Chaparral volleyball states case as Colorado's best ever

As difficult as it was to ignore, the Chaparral (Parker, Colo.) volleyball players insisted they did so. Even afterward, when it was fair to admit otherwise, they insisted they did so.

Talk swirled all season as to whether the Wolverines were the finest squad in Colorado's history. Landing in the top three in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 National Volleyball Rankings presented by the Army National Guard will cause such a stir. But the Wolverines neither embraced nor shunned the talk, instead brushing it off en route to a perfect season.

After Saturday's 25-18, 25-21, 28-26 sweep of Grandview in the Class 5A championship game at the Denver Coliseum, Chaparral escaped the season 31-0, extended its consecutive win streak to 53 matches and had a composite 61-1 record during the past two seasons – all while refusing to acknowledge the strength of its prowess.

MaxPreps Colorado 5A volleyball state brackets

"We realized everything, but we kind of left it behind us," said Texas-bound outside hitter Nicole Dalton, who is widely considered the finest player ever to come from the state. "It was only in the back of our minds."

"We didn't ever talk about it," Wolverines coach TR Ellis said. "It was posted on our Facebook page, but we never said ‘Oh, we're the No. 4 team, oh, now we're the No. 3 team.' It wasn't even in our vocabulary at all."

As for the philosophical debate as to whether the Wolverines are Colorado's finest of all time, Ellis bended a little bit. She believes her team could be just that, but partly due to the elevated state of the sport.

"It's hard, because you forget the game of volleyball is evolving so much," Ellis said. "These players are so much more skilled than the players from five years ago. I don't think you can even compare them to champions of the past years."

The presence of Dalton alone puts Chaparral in the conversation of the elite. The state's Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior (this season's award will be announced in December) was a member of the U.S. Youth Volleyball Team that played in the Youth World Championships in Turkey last summer. She hits the ball with the ferocity of a death-metal drummer. Standing 6-foot-2 with a body built for volleyball, Dalton was among the nation's marquee recruits before choosing the Longhorns.

"Winning with these girls has been awesome," said Dalton, who registered 492 kills and a hitting percentage better than 45 percent this season. "It really couldn't get any better. I couldn't ask for more."

One would imagine that a small inkling of pressure would seep in, considering the Wolverines weren't a shoo-in to win the state tournament with solid, Division I-lathered squads such as Grandview and Regis Jesuit in the fold. But no matter which coach or player you ask, they will infer that the Wolverines were experts at blocking out everything on the periphery.

"Some teams say one game at a time, but our mentality was to take it point by point," said senior Elizabeth Campbell, a 6-foot-3 middle hitter. "We left behind the fact that we had been undefeated, well, until right now. It was actually easy to ignore the national rankings, because we knew we had to win the title to keep that ranking."

The Wolverines also received ample contributions this season from libero Emily Podschweit, setter Katy Pinegar, defensive specialist Ahren Moydell and middle/right-side hitter Katie Ford and setter/right-side hitter Mikaela Heble, among others on a squad that lost only five of its 98 games.

If Ellis' rationale is on point, perhaps the sport is evolving to the point that players in five years will be even more advanced. That would mean this Chaparral squad might not be in the conversation then for finest team ever from Colorado.

For now, though, the Wolverines make a strong case.

"This team was very special," Ellis said. "The team last year was really special and we just wanted to match that feeling. But this is the best we've every played."

Also of note, Cheyenne Mountain (Colorado Springs, Colo.) burnished its reputation as the state's premier 4A squad by winning its fourth consecutive title. Led by senior outside hitter Janae Vander Ploeg, a Northern Arizona recruit, the Indians swept Coronado in the final.

The Indians, perfect at 31-0 and with a 49-match winning streak intact, lost to only one 4A team in the four-year run.